


Vengeful

by TalesFromTheCycle



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 39,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22420351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalesFromTheCycle/pseuds/TalesFromTheCycle
Summary: An original fantasy adventure series following a half night elf and her climb through the trials of her local adventuring guild.Updates monthly.
Kudos: 1





	1. The Land Below The Earth

As the crimson sun rose over the jagged mountain tops, it washed over the valley in its bathing light like a wave over dry sands. Light that had graced the valley day after day was foreign to the stranger crouched at the gaping mouth of a cavern dug into the mountain next to them. A tattered dark gray cloak wrapped the stranger as they made their glance at the sun that was once only a figment of their dreams. Though there is life in the valley, the stranger is alone as they make the land of the sun their new home. The trials and adventures that had gotten them to this point carried out in their mind like a cascade of memories and emotions. The backdrop of the sun lights the memories into vivid color unforeseen, and the stranger sees it all again.

Far from the rays of the crimson sun and far below the surface of Duramas there lied a connection of tunnels and caverns those of the surface came to call Vy’es Dela’ramar, The Land Below The Earth. This was a home to many who were outcasts to history and the light itself, those who might otherwise be considered nationless. The most prominent to call this land their true home were the Night Elves. Elves long since secluded from their brethren and forced to forge a new future in Vy’Es Dela’Ramar. It had been their home for millenia, even once relations with their surface brethren were repaired. Yet they remained ever since, they remained in their true home.  
One of the societies forged from their new home was a city built into an underground ravine of Vy’Es Dela’Ramar known as Eil’Drawwt. Eil’Drawwt was a city of connecting bridges and stone towers carved into the walls of the vast canyon that proved itself a haven for outsiders due to its relative close distance to the surface. Crystals of pure mana lined the ceilings of the cavern and the crossway bridges. They shined with fluorescent cool colors that brightened and dimmed with time as did the sun rise and set on the surface to better accommodate those used to the grace of the sun itself.  
The summer of the surface grew strong and yet in the underground, the crystalline sun shone its brightest in the frigid expanse of Eil’Drawwt. There, a young woman walked one of the many grand walkways that connected the walls of the ravine. She was of both night elven and human heritage as was made clear by her lavender skin yet oak brown eyes. Her ice white hair was tied in a ponytail that fell to the back of her simple blue and gray uniform. As she kept a brisk pace on the stone bridge, the half elf took a peek inside the satchel at the mess within. A thick paged book surrounded by packets of parchment tied together in small bundles greeted her eyes as she sighed and continued her pace. She ended up approaching upon a small gathering of merchants with stalls set up on the edges of the wide bridge selling varieties from copper trinkets to dried meats and mushroom treats.  
“More news?” The trinket salesman with small reading glasses perched upon his nose chuckled at the half elf’s arrival, “I feel like we just got it yesterday.”  
The woman couldn’t help but laugh with him despite hearing the joke several times over, perhaps it was his ever changing delivery that gave her that chuckle. She reached into the satchel and untied one of the bigger bundles of parchment handing a packet to the night elf merchant.  
“Good news at least.” The woman answered, “The guild finally caught that outlaw from two weeks ago.” She stepped to each stall and placed a packet on each of their counters.  
“Nessa, dear,” An older human woman with a variety of surface candies whispered softly as she placed the packet, “Have you had enough to eat the past few nights?”  
“Yes yes, I promise,” Nessa responded reassuringly, “My route was extended so I’ve been making enough coin for both my brother and I.”  
“You let me know if you need anything deary.” The old woman reached over to Nessa’s palm and drops a few small wrapped candies and then closes Nessa’s grip for her, “Save some of those for your brother this time.” She scolded playfully.  
Nessa giggled as she dropped the candies in her satchel before saying goodbye to the merchants and continued on her route. On her way she crossed paths with several guards, travelers, and workers. Occasionally a wagon pulled by centipede like creatures would take up the middle of the bridge as others squeezed past on the edges peeking back to see what contents the wagon might have. As the bridge stretched on, teams of adventurers grouped up at a specific section, sitting on barrels and occasionally pointing down at maps with the rest of their crew. They gathered around a bulletin board with two night elf guards standing with spears at the ready on each end of the large board.  
Nessa squeezed through the crowd, nodded to the guards as she approached and began fiddling with her satchel in front of the board. The adventurers took quick note of her presence and paid swift attention. She set the satchel down next to her with a handful of large parchment pieces in her grip. Scanning the board, Nessa began to take down outdated information and replaced them with updated bounties, quests, and the like. The adventurer’s watched attentively as new quests were posted and some scoffed as some were now marked as completed. When her job was done she put the outdated posters in her satchel and headed out to allow the adventurers to take a closer look.  
Before leaving for the next part of her route, Nessa turned back at the adventurers. She noticed a large number of the teams wore the emblem of the local guild on their sleeves or chest. The emblem depicted a comet piercing through the surface into the underground before ending with a collision on a shield. She stared at the armors they wore and the weapons at their sides, but paid closest attention to the unarmed. Nessa looked over their bodies for some sort of magical apparatus and eventually found one carrying a wand fastened tightly to their belt. Pulling a notebook from the side of her satchel, Nessa flipped to a page near the end. She then drew a tally mark next to one of several options on a list she prepared and then hurried off for her route.  
The midday traffic on the bridge picked as Nessa reached the western wall of the ravine. A grand shelf of towers and homes stacked atop each other colored the ravine wall, the flourescent lights of the crystals shone out of the wall like the thousand eyes of a spider. With nary a moment to lose, Nessa reached into her satchel once more for a handful of posters. She patrolled the collection of caverns dug into the wall and worked to put up posters of an outlaw on the stalagmites outside the long chain of shops within the caverns.  
The crowd of shoppers around Nessa had expanded from when she was on the bridge which gave little space to move and made the job a little more stressful for her. She groaned as she struggled to reach at a spot she intended to put up the poster when suddenly she felt a weight lifted off of her. As she turned to check what happened, a blur exitted the crowd for a mere moment to swipe the poster out of her hands violently and then disappeared once more blending in with the wave of civilians.  
Her satchel was gone, cut off her shoulder and slipped into a thief’s hand. The crowd parted only slightly to the perpetrator’s direction before losing interest and continuing on their way.  
“Hey! Thieving bastard!” Nessa stumbled over her words and tried to sound tough through a shrill voice crack as she chased in the direction the crowd parted for. She could barely see a foot in front of her as she pushed and shoved her way through the crowd in hopes to catch up with the thief. She hadn’t yet identified what the thief looked like yet but she saw a mere flash of the white satchel slip through the crowd dipping to the right.  
Nessa weaves to the right and manages to escape the grip of the crowd but is met gut first with a guard rail protecting her from a dip into the lower levels of the city. Her eyes dart around the scene as she spots a hooded figure below the guard rail gripping onto a series of safety ropes and nets designed to protect citizens from falling into the ravine below. He swung from net to net dropping down several stories to get near the bottom levels of the city.  
Nessa’s thoughts raced a mile a minute, with a bit of hesitation she went to lunge herself over the edge into one of the closer nets but a shiver washed over her as she even moves to attempt it. With a deep breath, she collected herself and made the leap onto the first net. From there she struggled and eventually flipped off to the next net to chase after the thief.  
Taking notice of the woman foolishly following him, the thief got onto solid ground and ripped a dagger out from beneath his vest. He brought the blade to one of the ropes connecting the safety net and carves away at it. With a snap he sprints with his prize into a crevice in the ravine wall, a dark alley.  
Nessa failed to recognize the thief’s plan as she was falling and ended up seeing the snapped safety net at the last moment. She reached towards the ledge but only got a grip of the disconnected rope, dangling from just her grip a few meters away from the ledge. She hesitantly looked below her. She gasped with slight relief as the ravine bottom was not below her, but instead more levels of the city, though a fall from her height would still be damaging for sure.  
With several exasperated breaths, Nessa closed her eyes and attempted to concentrate, muttering under her breath memories of study and knowledge. With her plan in mind she began to build momentum swinging from the rope. She was too far down to jump to the ledge but she had another idea. At the very moment the broken net connected with its other half, a spark traveled from her palm up the silk rope. A surge of weak mana that ended at the connection of the two rope links sparks as the rope returns to being connected once more.  
Dangling no more, Nessa climbed up the net and crawled out onto the ledge. She looked down at her palm, a slight smoke rose off a scorched patch of her palm. She waved it off and approached the crevice she witnessed the thief flee into. There she found the thief at the very end of the dead end alley rummaging through her satchel set upon the ground. He sprung to his feet quickly and brandished his dagger at the half elven woman.  
Nessa saw beneath his hood, he looked to be human with bright snakelike yellow eyes and slightly fanged teeth, the tells of a demiserpus race. He matched the description of the outlaw poster she was putting up.  
“Give me back my stuff before I call the guards on you.” Nessa choked out through exhausted gasps of breath as she lifted up her shirt slightly to pull a wooden wand out from beneath her clothes. She pointed the wand with a shaky grip at the thief as a violet light sparked out of the wand’s tip.  
The thief nodded and gripped onto the satchel, “All right all right,” His voice was quiet and almost inaudible, “Just put the wand down we don’t need to get all heated up.” With the satchel in his hand and the dagger lowering in the other he slowly stepped forward to hand over the bag.  
Nessa complied and lowered her wand, “Just drop the bag and leave.” She instinctively took a few steps back as he approached, but this only made him pick up his pace. His dagger suddenly lashed out to stab out at Nessa before she could react. A flash of steel in his hand lunged out towards her face as she flinched waiting for the blade to strike her. Her eyes shut closed but opened again when she heard an unfamiliar sound.  
The thief’s lunge was parried by an invisible force as his dagger flew out of his grip, before he could comprehend the situation, a bright light surged from the mouth of the alley and soared in to strike the thief in the chest and knock him onto his back with a concussive burst. Nessa turned to face the light that shone from behind her. Standing at the end, a night elf woman around the same age as Nessa held one hand forward in an elegant motion with a white staff in her other hand.  
“I knew I heard some sort of ruckus. Take your belongings and get going civilian.” The night elf spoke with a dignified tone as she brushed her lavender hair out of her face. Labelled on her white priestess gown, the same emblem of the guild was stitched into her shoulder.  
Just before Nessa could appropriately respond, another larger figure stepped into the alley.


	2. Starlight In Hiding

The larger presence with an outline of devil’s horns atop their head stepped into the alley and momentarily blocked out the lights shining in through the alley. Yet once they entered, the light returned and reflected onto the silver skin and hulking armor of the visitor. They dressed neck to toe in a cold black plate armor with their face peering out from the chestplate like a kitten peering out of a basket.  
“Clair,” The armored woman with black horns upon her head spoke, “What’s the hold up? Don’t tell me you’re tired already, we just- Wait what happened here?” She took a look around the alley at Nessa and the unconscious thief.  
“In your fury for exercise you passed up an obvious scene, am I to believe you were running this whole time with your eyes closed?” The priestess referred to as Clair retorted back in a snarky tone. “I was just telling this civilian to gather her things and leave.” She shot a glare back to Nessa who nodded and began gathering up her satchel and picking up the slew of papers and supplies that fell out during the struggle.  
“Perceptive as always, but how about you take the culprit to the authorities while I help clean up.” The knight walked forward accompanied by the clanging of her armor clashing together. The priestess scoffed and haphazardly dragged the thief away out of the alley and disappeared around the corner.  
The knight stood over Nessa and held out a tattered book with a smile on her face, “I believe this is yours, I’d hate to lose a tome of this volume.”  
Nessa smiled back and took the offered book and put it back in her satchel which she carried gripping on the top of the bag with the broken strap hanging off to the side, “Oh, thank you ma’am, I’m surprised you could tell it’s a tome at this point honestly.” She laughed it off as she stood up much shorter than the knight in front of her.  
“Well if I’m being frank, I only assumed, given your wand is still over in the corner as well.” The knight pointed to the still sparking wand fizzling with purple flashes.  
Nessa whipped her head and swore under her breath, rushing to pick it up. With the wand in hand, she made a dialing motion with her finger as the light dimmed until it returned to a normal state.  
“I’m really sorry, this whole situation has me all stressed out,” Nessa went on as the two stepped out into the street, “Thank you so much, both you and your friend were a great help. Is there anything I can do to repay-”  
“Nonsense, really it was nothing on our part. Now then, how about we head back to the guild and put this behind us.” A moment of silence passed over the two of them briefly.  
“Oh. Well, uh,” Nessa stammered in response, “I’m not a guild member actually, ma’am.”  
The knight’s silver face was washed in a wave of red for a moment, “Oh right, sorry. Guess I just assumed you were one of the new recruits this year with you being a mage an’ all.” She spoke quickly and struggled to find the point of her words, “Well the offer is still there, kind of. I can escort you home for all the trouble you’ve been through. It’s the least I can do.”  
“I guess I’ll take you up on that offer then, but you haven’t told me your name even.” She chuckled and eased up after the knight’s accidental assumption. Even if for a moment, it gave her a flash of joy to have been mistaken for an adventurer in any capacity. Nessa began to head home with the knight at her side.  
“Oh my apologies, I’m Hela,” The knight politely raised her hand to her plated chest and bowed her head slightly, “I’m a guild member for Hidden Star which you could probably tell. And you?” As Hela finished speaking, Nessa noticed the familiar comet emblem pinned to the shoulder of a cloak that Hela wore.  
“My name’s Nessa. I’m just a simple paper girl honestly, nothing too exciting going on with me.” She sheepishly responded with her attention seemingly darting around as they slowly ascended the grand stairs out of the lower districts.  
“Nessa?” Hela repeated and pondered for a moment, “I could’ve sworn I heard that name somewhere before.”  
Nessa’s heart stopped for a moment as a nervous shock passed over her, “Well um, you might’ve seen me from time to time updating the quest boards. Heard gossip because I screw it up all the time? Something along those lines?” She desperately tried to cover up any recognition that Hela might’ve found in her.  
“No that’s not it,” The knight appeared oblivious to Nessa’s paranoia as they both scaled the stairs, “Oh now I remember, this explains everything!” Hela snapped into recollection which paralyzed Nessa in fear. “I recall seeing an admission form back at the guild for a Nessa just a few weeks ago. The picture looked a bit like you, and even shared your name. No wonder I thought you were a new recruit,” The situation clicked slowly in Hela’s head as Nessa sighed in subtle relief but still appeared distressed, “So many similarities, but you said you don’t apprentice at the guild, right?”  
As the two reached the end of the stairs, Nessa’s pace slowed and her gaze turned away from the seemingly piercing glare of the knight. Despite her attempt to respond she couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough before Hela broke the silence.  
“Sorry, I really shouldn’t have dwelled on that. I just thought-”  
“It’s alright, you didn’t mean anything by it I know.” Still refusing to keep eye contact, Nessa interrupted, “The truth is, I did sign up for an apprenticeship at Hidden Star. I ended up not showing up to the entrance exams though. I just chickened out of the process because I didn’t think I’d get in.” She looked up to see a tower connected to the ceiling of the cavern and began to lead through the residential district towards it.  
“Excuse me for being brash Nessa, but that’s some nonsense if I’ve ever heard it,” Hela retorted which surprised Nessa into turning around to look the knight in the face once more, “Nobody, not even my team and I, started off working for the guild with the experience we got on our backs now. If you don’t put yourself in danger of failure, you can’t succeed. I bet you’d do great as an adventurer if you put your mind to it, same with anyone really.” Hela kept a genuine and reassuring smile on her face through her encouragement, the contagious smile spread to Nessa quickly.  
“I guess you do have a point Hela, but I kinda still missed my chance this year. Not to mention with each year I’d fit less and less in. I basically missed the boat several times over.” Nessa joked as they both stopped at a grand fenced area housing an old dilapidated manor with a single stone tower protruding from one of its corners. Stepping towards the gate, Nessa pushed and moved one of the gate doors forward slightly and walked through.  
She shakes her head and whispers under her breath, “When is he going to learn to lock this stupid thing,” Nessa looked back to Hela who still stood behind the gate, “Thank you again for the escort and back there with the thief, I really appreciate it.”  
Hela looked past her in awe at the sheer size of the manor behind Nessa before snapping back to attention to the conversation, “Oh, of course. Wow, I hadn’t realized folks moved back into this old place. I thought it was still abandoned.”  
Nessa gripped one hand onto the gate and leaned into it searching for the right response to give, “Well, I,” Her eyes darted from the floor, her hands, and back to Hela again as she struggled with what to say, “It’s still technically abandoned. My little brother and I just sort of hide out here ever since the original owners left to the surface about a decade back. I know you’re a guild member and all but I hope you’d keep this a secret between us if you could.”  
Hela took a long look at the manor, it slowly faded into darkness as the crystalline sun slowly dimmed with the coming of night hours. She then looked back to Nessa but not with her usual innocent smile and instead with what Nessa could only understand as a determined gaze.  
“Of course I won’t tell anyone. What you’re doing isn’t bringing any harm to anyone. But I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I didn’t do something about it. So I’m going to cash in a favor with my guildmaster and see if he can open up another apprenticeship spot. I’m not going to force you to come or anything like that. But the guild can provide a better life for the both of you than this. Feel free to stop by if that interests you.” Hela stepped away from the gate and gave a three fingered wave to Nessa as she departed.  
“Stay safe.” Hela concluded making her way away from the manor.  
Nessa was nearly left speechless, the offer and kindness stuck in her mind like a pin on a board as she watched the knight leave. With those words still playing over and over, Nessa wandered towards the tower and pulled a rusted key from one of the pockets on her uniform. After a moment of jamming the key into the beaten up door, she opened it up and stepped inside and locked the door behind her. Climbing the spiral stairs up the dark and dusty tower she eventually reached a well lit room seemingly split down the middle with a clear divide of messes and piles of assorted objects on one side and neatly organized bookshelves and unlit candles on the other.  
“You forgot to lock the gate again, Mair.” Nessa said drearily as she hung her satchel on the back of a chair and then leaned against a wall with her arms crossed looking over at the other side of the room.  
Lying on a rickety bed with face buried in an unlabeled book, a full blooded night elf teen jumped slightly but remained hidden behind his book, “Oh sorry sis, completely slipped my mind.” Mair responded casually.  
Nessa simply sighed while stepping cautiously onto her brother’s side of the room, dropping some of the candies she received earlier on his nightstand. Before his hand reached out to swipe the sweets she cupped her hand over them halting the advance, “On the topic of mind slips, did you finish your school work this time around?”  
“I did,” Mair elongated his admission in annoyance, “I miss one assignment and suddenly you go in mom mode.” He snarkily added in keeping his face hidden behind the book still even as Nessa was standing right next to him.  
Without even a retort, Nessa pulled the book down out of the young teen’s face, causing him to wince after being removed from his disguise. Though the discoloration was faint on his already dark violet face, his swollen eye was a clear indication of a bruise starting up.  
“Shoot,” Mair whispered under his breath and smiled his usual disarming grin with his standard missing tooth, “I can explain.”  
Nessa walked off back to her side of the room rubbing her temples as she began to pace, “I don’t get how you even manage to find more people to fight at this rate. Did you start it? Did you get in trouble? Am I going to get another letter about this crap?”  
“No, kinda, maybe. In that order.” Mair sat up on his bed and seemed to spring to life, “It was that one upperclassman again, he was pushing around my friend and I had to intervene. I taught him a lesson though, you totally should’ve seen the look on his face it was priceless. That one professor that I’m cool with backed my side of the story so it’s a total win win.” He told the story with a series of acting out punches and dodges like he was acting a one man play.  
Nessa simply watched and kept silent through his explanation before finally giving her case, “Just be more careful in the future please, you don’t know when someone might carry a knife or some magic on them. Then suddenly a little brawl is a trip to the infirmary, or worse. I don’t need you getting suspended over this either.” She sat down at her desk. She placed her satchel on the desk in front of her and gathered a mass of sewing supplies to work on the broken strap.  
Mair thought over his sister’s words before taking notice of her side of the room, “Alright alright, I get it. Hey, what happened to your bag?”  
“Some thief slashed it up earlier today. Luckily some adventurers from Hidden Star helped me out.” She answered casually as she began to fix up the broken strap.  
“Woah you actually got saved by some adventurers. That must’ve been awesome. But, uh, how come you didn’t just zap the thief with some magic or something? That would’ve been cool as hell.”  
“I wouldn’t call an attempted mugging awesome, rocks for brains. Besides, the bastard got a hold of my tome so it’s not like I had anything useful to cast on hand.” Nessa rolled her eyes and slouched over her desk.  
“Ah, just another piece of evidence that warriors trump mages in every avenue. Don’t need no dumb book to beat up a lowlife.” Mair jokingly flexed his arms to annoy his sister and then returned to his side of the room.  
“Keep telling yourself that buddy,” Nessa laughed off the remark but silently paused her work and then turned around in her chair to face her brother, “Speaking of those adventurers, I talked to one of them and she said she can try and open up an apprenticeship spot over at Hidden Star. Thought you’d want to sign up since you just barely missed the age requirement a few weeks back.”  
Mair’s eyes lit up with excitement at the offer, “Seriously? no way! I wouldn’t have to waste a whole year just waiting around. That’d be so cool!” He calmed down a bit and looked to Nessa with a confused stare, “But wait, wouldn’t you want to take that spot too? I mean, you’ve been waiting longer than me, it’d feel a bit unfair, honestly.”  
Nessa stood up and walked over to the northern edge of the room where a rickety ladder leads higher up in their old tower and stood just beneath the ladder. She smiled at Mair and just shook her head, “How about you just think it over for now, if you’re interested we can see if both of us can go in together and try out from there. If not I’ll be fine waiting another year, won’t kill me.” She put one hand on one of the rungs and began to scale the ladder, “I’ll be back down in a minute, how about you actually start on your schoolwork now.” She remarked on her way up which only led her brother to groan and rummage through a pile of his books.  
Nessa climbed to the topmost floor of the manor’s tower, looking out at a view from the shattered stone wall that led out to the entire city in the ravine. She slowly approached the gap in the wall to look at the dimly lit web of stone connecting the ravine together. The crystalline sun had dimmed to only but the shine of a moon, with several more crystals making their debut as stars on the darkened ceiling. The artificial stars reflected in the cold black waters of the ravine back up below the streets as if the sky surrounded the suspended world. In the middle of the city, a grand hall remained lit as a bonfire. It stood as the beating heart of the night city, the lone spider to tend to the web of bridges. Nessa’s view could only barely capture the hall behind the hundreds of bridges weaved over it’s lights. She stood there, staring in thought, basking in false starlight.


	3. Outburst

Nessa jolted awake with the sound of metal clashing and echoing from beneath her in the tower’s floors below. With a glance over she saw that Mair’s bed was already empty and a clear mess had been made on the path to the stairs. Without a second thought, she leapt out of bed and rushed down the spiral stairs until the context of the situation revealed itself.   
Mair stood poorly fitted into a chestplate with a clutter of ornate decorative weapons strewn across the stone floor in front of him. He looked disheveled and energetic as he held a silver tipped pike in one hand while struggling to adjust the unfitted armor that he wore.  
Nessa sighed both with relief and annoyance. She glanced out of an open slit in the tower wall to see the crystal lights of the city were still fairly dim, “What are you doing messing with all of this stuff so early in the morning?” Nessa lightly scolded through a yawn as she stepped down the stairs approaching her little brother.  
“Sorry sorry, I just couldn’t help myself. You said we could go to the guild on your day off and I couldn’t sleep last night and-” Mair lit up with excitement, interrupting himself as he tripped over the clutter around him, undoing a majority of the straps on his chestplate.  
“I know I know, we’re going. But we can’t just take anything from the manor. If someone recognizes anything from here, we can get in trouble. Besides, the guild will provide what we need for the exams.” Nessa calmly explained as she tied her long hair into a ponytail and proceeded to clean up the mass of decorative weapons that littered the floor.  
Mair stood, eventually sitting down on the cold stone floor to undo the rest of the straps of the armor hanging off of him. Prying the plate of metal off his chest, he brought his knees up to his chest and studied the point of the pike. The carved designs have long since faded. The only discernible mark were a pair of initials carved in the elvish language, KM.  
His sister looked up from the cleaning up to see him sulked upon the ground, she quietly released a sigh under her breath and stood over Mair nudging him on the shoulder, “You can bring the pike.” Her brother returned to his lit up expression which infectiously spread to Nessa, “Just don’t break it again, I’m going to start charging you for mending that thing back together.”  
Mair leapt to his feet and gave Nessa a quick hug before rushing down the stairs, “Thanks sis! I’ll be careful this time!”  
Nessa was left alone in the middle of the tower with the scattered armor and weapons still surrounding the floor. Mumbling to herself, she settled to deal with the mess later as she returned up the stairs to get ready to leave for the guild. Before she made it up the stairs, she noticed an armor stand that her brother had dragged in and knocked over. An idea popped into her head as she quickly gathered her tome and wand from her satchel and headed back down to the cluttered floor.  
Deep breaths, in and out. Nessa flipped through the pages of her tome as she stumbled down the stairs above the room. She ended her search near the beginning of the tattered book and kept her finger locked to the page. She held the tome in one hand while the other guided her through the details of the spell, her wand forced to remain held in her teeth while she situated herself. Finally she grounded herself and held the tome open while her wand aimed to the knocked over armor stand.  
Nessa’s gaze nervously shifted from her target to her tome until focus finally found her and her breathing slowed. A violet shine radiated from her wand and wrapped the magical apparatus and her wrist in a faint glow, wavering and encompassing like a bubble blown in a slight wind. The purple glow slowly crawled from the point of the wand through the air, approaching the armor stand like a snake to its prey. The glowing cloud of mana swallowed the wooden frame little by little until it too was encompassed by the faint fog.   
Her hands shook ever so slightly as she raised her tome hand in an arc, her breaths became more erratic as she made the motion. With her motion, the armor stand slowly picked itself up with a slight tremble. Nessa’s grip tightened over her wand as she noticed the slight trembling grow fiercer. Struggling to correct the situation as she failed to find breaths. Her focus was lost in an instant as the armor stand dropped back to the ground, with the violet mist fading away into the air.  
Silence fell over the room, the page of the tome crinkled slightly and the grip on Nessa’s wand tightened to a near snapping point. In a lashing outburst, Nessa whipped her arm as a threat to throw her wand against the stone wall. In the same moment, a scarlet and violet flash of energy washed over her hand, the armor stand was thrown across the room at the wall.  
Nessa jumped back as the wooden frame shattered against the wall. She briefly stood in confusion and awe at what she did before a stinging feeling stung at her wrist. A shallow scar started at the base of her palm and ran down her wrist with intense pain. With a swear mumbled under her breath, Nessa covered the strange scar and returned upstairs to prepare, silently vowing to clean up the mess later without a word to her brother.

In less than a half hour, Nessa stepped outside ready to join her brother on the short trek to the guild. She pulled back the long sleeve of her jacket and checked the scar on her wrist, it had faded surprisingly fast but a faint outline of it still remained.   
“Gods, what took you so long? I felt like I’ve been waiting forever.” Mair complained leaning onto the metal fence with the pike slung over his back. He opened the gate and kept the lead throughout their walk across the system of bridges to reach the heart of Eil’Drawwt.  
“Quit your whining,” Nessa playfully shoved him forward and adjusted her newly repaired satchel, “I have much more to worry about than just lugging around metal on a stick.”  
“Psh, Whatever.” Mair scoffed and rolled his eyes, but got distracted as they approached the first bridge. He sped ahead and leaned over the ledge to look at the guildhall down in the ravine. “I still can’t believe we’re gonna get an apprenticeship at the guild.” He remarked with giddy anticipation.  
“You’re awfully confident, just do your best in whatever test they throw at you and it should work out just fine.” Nessa giggled and continued past her brother.  
“You think they’ll actually extend the invitation for the both us, sis? I’d feel pretty bad if I just swooped in to take your chance.”  
“Didn’t I tell you not to worry about that? Hell, I think you’d be lucky without me constantly fussing over you.” Nessa shifted to a babying voice to tease her younger brother.  
“Bleugh, you’re right. You’re better off as a mom than an adventurer.” He teased back as they both laughed over the exchange. Playfully bickering as they made their light trek through the morning traffic of the city.   
In a matter of time they arrived at the main entrance of the guild hall. The bridge led forward through a path lit with mana fueled flames to an opened grand door made of an olive colored wood framed with silver edging. A flank of armed and helmed guards checked the emblems of each soul passing through. The traffic picked up to an extreme hustle as the hundreds of adventuring teams awoke to set upon what quests were laid before them for the next day, week, or even few months.  
Nessa paused briefly which inclined her brother to stop and check as well, “Everything alright, sis?” He asked with a hint of concern.  
“Yes yes, I’m alright.” Nessa laughed it off and continued forward towards the entrance, keeping a tight grip on her satchel as the guards took notice of the two visitors without emblems.   
The guards were lightly armored from the shoulders down, but the steel helms they wore formed the visage of a surface beast that gazed diligently as if prey stepped before them. The grip on their spears remained firm as one had approached to address the two strangers.  
“Hail, what business have you sought?”  
Nessa froze for a moment, before finally clearing her throat and responding, “We were invited for an apprenticeship opportunity. Specifically by a demifai named Hela.”  
Silence fell over the conversation for a mere moment, the guards looked to each other as if confused, “You said you were invited by Hela? As in the leader of the Crimson Shield?”  
The elven half siblings’ hearts stopped at the same moment, they remained stunned until Nessa finally snapped back and responded through nervous stammering, “Uh, well yes. We met a few days back, and um, she failed to mention her status at the guild to be entirely honest.”  
“Ah, right.” The guard remained stalwart but spoke with slight doubt in his voice, “Follow me and I’ll set you up to meet with Director Veridan to sort this all out. He handles the apprenticeship program.”  
The guard waved the siblings forward and they both nervously nodded and followed several paces back.  
“Are you serious Nessa?” Mair leaned in and whispered to his still panicked sister, “What could you have done to impress the highest ranked adventurer around these parts?” He pressed on with shock and denial with hidden fascination.  
“I didn’t do anything I swear,” Nessa whispered back, matching her brother’s tone of bewilderment, “I didn’t even piece it together that she was from Team Crimson Shield, gods I had no idea. I should’ve seriously noticed.”   
The two continued to wrap their heads around the situation but Nessa’s attention is turned away as they traverse through the guild hall. The brick stone floors echoed with their footsteps as their paths were lit by sapphire flames from the torches on the marble walls and pillars. The duo made their first steps into the main hall which expanded to connect the entire guild. A spiral staircase led down through every floor of the fortress as the bustle of workers, guards, and guild members all worked to form the perfect image. Cogs in an efficient machine, the portrait that matched the wild expectations of the life of adventure Nessa had dreamed of since she was a little girl. She stood in the middle of it all, a moment she had dreamed but never expected.  
“Hey, you good?” Mair had snapped her out of her daydream.  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nessa smiled back to him and gestured to the scene around them, “It’s just a little surreal this whole situation is, I still can’t believe I’m standing here right now.”   
Before Mair could respond, the guard had stepped aside as he led the others to their destination. Standing confidently and with his hands delicately and politely held behind his back, a night elf man who looked to be in his 15th decade, yet still possessing of a fierce glare and fit form. The individual kept a stern stare focused on the two siblings as he took notice of them.  
“I am ecstatic to hear of your enthusiasm over The Hidden Star guild,” His words were kind but they were spoken with a lack of intent and emotion that failed the impact of his greeting, “I hope you enjoyed your tour, unfortunately it appears there was a mistake. I’ve heard nothing from the Guildmaster or Lady Krisofft about such a circumstance. Go ahead, on your way now.”  
“What!? My sister was invited by Hela to join the guild, you can’t just send us away without confirming anything!” Mair retorted back, upset by the older elf’s rude attitude.  
“I have all the confirmation I need, every morsel of thought and information passes through me first you see,” The Director continued to talk down to Mair as Nessa stood in a nervous silence, “I hope this misunderstanding can be swept under the rug and forgotten, completely. Now shoo.”  
“Please, sir,” Nessa spoke up but choked up slightly as the full attentive gaze of The Director shifted to her, “We’ll be willing to leave as you wish, but if you could give us any benefit of the doubt, we’d be immensely appreciative.” She concluded, waiting to be shut down when his response was cut off by a shout from across the grand room.  
“Hey Saul!” A cheerful voice rang that turned the conversation in its direction. Hela had waved and greeted the group from afar and approached alongside a short and stout old dwarf dressed in a long coat and a braided black beard that reached down to his chest. “Oh cool, looks like you met Nessa already. And this must be her brother, now the both of you can join in. A pleasure to meet you dude.” She waved to Mair who stood starstruck but ended up nervously waving back to her.  
The Director cleared his throat before addressing the intrusion, “Forgive me Ms. Krisofft, are you saying that you recognize these two?” He shifted to a much more polite tone as he spoke to Hela.  
“Well duh, I already told Guildmaster everything.” She obliviously responded with a grin on her face while the dwarf next to her nodded.  
“Guildmaster,” The director’s voice heightened in pitch with disbelief and annoyance over the situation, “Is it true you knew of this and did not inform your trusted advisor?”  
The dwarf scratched at his head for a moment and pondered, “I think I might’ve forgotten to ol’ chap. No harm done in the end, start some trials for these youths,” The dwarf turned to face Nessa and Mair, “Hela here told me the two of you couldn’t make it to the last apprenticeship exams, the least I could do to alleviate the incredible debt we owe to her is to give that chance to you both.” The Guildmaster laughed heartily and offered a handshake to the two siblings, both accepted graciously. “Good luck on your trials, I’m afraid I have an unimaginable and taxing duty to attend to. Paperwork.” He laughed once more and left on his own path.  
Director Veridan stood silently during the exchange. He sighed and addressed the siblings once more with a seemingly forced smile on his face. “It looks like there was a lack of communication in the end here, follow me to the guild’s training grounds. There we can test your mettle to see if you’re both a fit here at our guild as apprentices. I hope we can put this misunderstanding behind us.”   
Mair scoffed and rolled his eyes but Nessa accepted the apology with a smile and half bow. The director led the way through the winding halls of the guild as the siblings followed with Hela close behind to observe the trials for herself. Passing the personal quarters of the guild members and the multitude of facilities available, the group eventually reached an open aired battleground that led to a beautiful underview of the city built on the ravine.   
Several teams of adventurers gathered together there to spar and practice drills in the expansive space provided to them. Nessa observed in awe at the battles that raged on the field before her. The combatants for the most part fought with wooden training weapons except for a couple that caught Nessa’s eye. A demiserpus with a copper blade held in one hand while the other was held behind his back sparred and kept the defensive against a full blooded serpus, a scaled snake like man with a long tail, who pursued his target with a steel two handed axe. The two battled with ferocity and without fear of the sharpened weapons they lashed at each other while the group approached them.  
“You two!” Director Veridan yelled over the commotion of the training grounds at the serpus and demiserpus. The two stopped their duel and as they paused, a green glow visibily radiated from their weapons. Nessa recognized the magical glow as a dulling enchantment that was customary for adventurers to use to spar or to spare their opponents.   
“What’s the deal, Director? I was just about to close that victory out.” The demiserpus snarkily complained while resting the copper sword on his shoulder casually.   
“A momentary interruption, I need one of you to spar this one here,” Veridan motioned to Mair who gripped at his pike ready to prove himself, Veridan’s hand waved over Mair and his weapon, the ring on The Director’s hand flashed with green sparks as the weapon was bathed in the same enchantment that the others possessed, “I’d prefer these makeshift trials are over quickly to not hinder my schedule. A short round of sparring will be enough for me to judge your potential.”  
“You can do it, brother,” Nessa encouraged him before he stepped forward, “Do your best, and it’ll be enough. I’m sure of it.” Her brother gave a confident smile and nod in thanks as he stepped up to the snake-blooded duo.   
The demiserpus sheathed his sword and stepped away from the soon to be battlefield, “Sounds good, boss. Go ahead and make it quick, Kross.” The serpus nodded and held his axe up with a deep breath.  
The director stood off to the side as judge to the battle, his hands rose and he called for the duel to begin. Despite the command given, both combatants remained still. The serpus observed Mair for an opening while Mair waited for his opponent to make the first move. In a spontaneous moment, Kross pounced with his axe held behind him ready to swipe at his target. Mair lunged in response and jabbed the pike into the serpus’ open chest. Both of their weapons connected with their targets with a field of verdant aura that halted the blades from striking at their skin. Yet the concussive force of their attacks knocked each other back to square one.  
They traded blows, back and forth, avoiding the clashing of their blades in favor of landing the strike that would finish the battle without care of the damage and wounds that would follow onto them. A vicious offense against unfailing counterattacks as each warrior refused to fall until their target was already on the ground.   
“Gods, it’s like a wolf and its reflection. They keep going but just don’t make any progress but wear themselves out.” Nessa sighed and watched as the serpus and her brother both ended up going for an overhead strike, only to meet their blades and immediately disengage to go in with a new approach.  
“That’s Kross for you,” Hela responded while keeping her gaze fixed on the battle, “He’s one of the apprentices that joined last year, he’s prone to going all in as you can probably tell.”  
The fight approached its conclusion as Mair stumbled back with gasping breath. His grip loosened as he struggled to remain standing. Kross stood in a significantly better state and prepared to finish off the duel. He approached and reared back with his foot raised to kick Mair down.   
Mair saw his opening and reached for it, his grip on his pike was released completely as the kick struck directly into his gut. Just before Mair was sent collapsing to the ground, he grappled onto Kross’ leg and tripped him off of his balance. The two of them crashed onto their backs at the same time with a loud thud.  
“An impressive display,” The Director interjected as the two struggled to rise to their feet, “Once your sister finishes her part, I’ll prepare the written segment for the both of you. As for you Kross, and by extension Rex,” Director Veridan addressed Kross and the demiserpus on the sidelines, “Keep up with your training, I haven’t forgotten your recent failures.”  
“Come on boss. You can’t hold this against us, that was a total fluke.” The demiserpus named Rex rebutted through gritted fanged teeth. Kross simply kept silent with his head low and returned to his teammates side.   
“We’re not discussing this now.” Veridan dismissed the apprentices and led the group to an empty corner of the training grounds. “Now then, Nessa was it? I can sense the residue of mana on you, I can only assume you’re expecting a test of magic?”   
Nessa paused while Veridan continued walking and stopped several meters away from her, “Yes, what should I do sir?” She stuttered slightly in her question as she reached for her tome and wand in preparation.   
The Director raised his palm as a cyan bubble formed a shielding ward around him. The magic pulsed from the ring on his hand to form the abjuration in front of him, “I’ve created a weak shield around myself, cast against it from this distance to prove yourself.”  
Nessa nodded and gazed at the target in front of her. She flipped through the pages of her tome and found a simple spell she could use to attack the ward The Director had put up. She raised her wand out in front of her to aim and focused to create a bolt of mana to fire off. Sparks and flashes of violet energy coalesced at the tip of Nessa’s wand to form an orb of erratic mana convulsing and ready to burst. With a deep breath and a moment of hesitation, the bolt of mana was loosed from her control and was flung at the ward. The bolt whizzed forward but lost its path and ended up careening into the air until an outside force suddenly paused its momentum completely. The bolt fizzled out in its paused state into nothing.  
“Thank you Master Wright,” Veridan addressed someone near Hela and Mair that Nessa had not noticed. She turned back and saw standing close to Hela was a black coated human with curly scarlet hair and an eyepatch concealed over his right eye. The man said something to Hela but the words were blocked out as panic set in for Nessa. “Try one more time, Nessa.” Veridan waited for another attempt as Nessa’s hands began to shake. She struggled to find her rhythm as her wand rose once more and attempted to charge the bolt of mana. Nessa felt the whispering voices of those waiting for her to either pull through or fail miserably. Her heartbeat escalated to cloud her hearing as she felt the eyes of the entire training ground on her. Her focus was erratic and lost, the orb of mana she sent without consciously thinking had faltered in its path and hit Veridan’s ward with a pathetic gasp as it sizzled out of existence.  
In an attempt she made without realizing, Nessa had failed and watched as Veridan’s ward was cast down. He said something and shook his head disappointingly. Nessa could not hear over her heartbeat. She believed to have seen Hela and the stranger turn their attention elsewhere to ignore the scene and saw her brother’s admiration burn away. Yet her head was locked forward and her focus could not leave what was in front of her. The dreams and hopes she carried through her life shattered and fell away into the abyss of doubt and failure.  
The eyes that stared and looked down upon her seared upon her skin as a surge of mana rushed through her arm. Only her body knew what to do as her wand was dropped and a continuous beam of scarlet and violet magic poured out from her hand and pulsed towards Veridan like a bout of raging flame.  
Veridan had barely noticed the beam approaching and recast the ward to shield himself. A flash and cloud of smoke enveloped the area. Nessa came back to her senses as the dust settled. She quickly pulled her now burnt sleeve up to reveal her scar had reformed and traced her veins all the way back to her upper arm. With quick movements she attempted to conceal the damage as she shifted her attention back to The Director. He stood shocked and yet wearing a smirk on his face. His ward was almost completely shattered from the devastating spell.  
“Well done. You had me worried there for a moment, in more ways than one,” The ward dropped as he put his palm down, “Let’s move onto the written segment, afterwards I can show you to your new living quarters.” He added on confidently.  
Nessa nodded and kept her arm pressed to her body hoping no one had noticed. Mair had rushed up to his sister with a tackling hug and lifted her up happily, “That was awesome, sis! I didn’t even know you could do something like that.”  
“Yeah I have to say, I wasn’t expecting something like that at all,” Hela praised, “Even my teammate was surprised by that.” She attempted to refer to the man beside her, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Huh, strange of him to disappear like that. Well good luck on the boring part of apprentice exams, I think I’d fall asleep if I tried to support you through that.” Hela giggled and waved goodbye to the siblings.  
Nessa was put down by her brother and they both waved off Hela, “Thank you again for this opportunity.” Nessa showed her gratitude sincerely which warranted Hela’s fanged smile to shine through as she gave a wink of understanding before finally exiting.  
The siblings proceeded to follow where Veridan had left off to but Mair suddenly paused in a panic, “Crap! I left the pike over on the battlefield, I’ll catch up just keep going!” He ran off which led Nessa to chuckle briefly as she left into the halls of the building.  
Just as she was about to turn a corner, she felt a grip on her arm as her burnt sleeve fell to reveal her scarred arm. Nessa snapped to the assailant, the scarlet haired human who stood at Hela’s side. She jerked her arm away but the damage had already been done. The man with the eyepatch saw the strange scar in its entirety.  
“Hey! What’s your problem?” Nessa attempted to hide the scar once more by crossing her arms and stepping away.  
“Just confirming my suspicions,” The man who was called Wright answered, his voice was soft yet threatening as he brushed aside his blood red hair out of his good eye, “Don’t be so stupid in the future. What you pulled was no correct or effective way to cast. You could hurt yourself.”  
“Thanks for the warning.” Nessa sarcastically dismissed the man and turned to walk away, she briefly looked back to find he had disappeared just as before. Nessa took one last look at the burning scar that traced her veins before finally leaving to follow The Director. The sting of the scar on her arm followed her throughout each step into her new life.


	4. New Life

Flickering candlelight illuminated an expansive, silent room deep in the heart of the guild. Shelves of books and tomes alike bound the room together into a grand maze. Confined and surrounded by the walls of bookshelves, a desk scattered with a variety of tomes opened up to the half blooded elf seated at the end of the desk. The elf’s unkempt white hair sank down in a cascade that interfered as she traced over the incantations in her personal tome, cross referencing with the others around her to fill in the faded marks lost to wear and time.  
Nessa pushed her hair out of her eyes and leaned back for a break from the constant writing and studying. She caressed at her aching wrist, pulling back her sleeves to check instinctively at her casting arm. The scar had faded away over the two weeks she and her brother had been apprenticing at Hidden Star guild. Yet the stinging sensations occasionally struck in the same spot when Nessa had relied on magic.   
Reaching over the desk, Nessa grabbed a book at the edge of her pile and scanned through research on the effects of mana on the mortal body. Despite her attempts, the exact details of what affected her still eluded her findings. She eventually decided to call it for the morning and gathered up the books and tomes to their designated spots. Near the end of her task, she ended up hearing a conversation pick up from across the library grow closer and closer.  
“This is no stupid joke, Wright.” Nessa recognized the voice as the priestess known as Clair that she met in the alley with Hela, “You’ve been way too reckless in our past missions and I’m sick of babysitting both you and the captain,” Clair continued to complain to the mentioned Wright eliciting no response except a quiet chuckle from her teammate, “I swear I look away from you for a few moments and you find a way to get torn to bloody bits. I’m sick of spending all my divine energy trying to keep you sewn together!” She attempted to shout but kept her voice low to account for the library around her.  
“Oh, don’t be like that Clair,” Wright responded in a suave yet mocking tone, “We got a total thing going. Hela has stuff trying to kill her, I kill that stuff, you keep both of us from getting killed by stuff. And correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t holy girls like you supposed to heal?” Wright ended with a sarcastic comment that heightened Clair’s rage back to full swing.  
“That’s it, I’m pushing you in the deepest chasm I find next. I will wait for you to crawl back up, and then kick you down again.”   
“Aww, that’s not very nice. Am I going to have to come in for confession next week?” The two continued their aggressive banter as if it was a daily occurrence for them. Nessa paused before she put the last of the tomes back and approached cautiously to the source of the two adventurers with the intention to eavesdrop on the two. Her plan backfired as the duo turned the corner and ran right into her. Nessa froze for a moment as they strolled past without addressing her in the slightest.  
“Your ability to annoy me consistently is unparalleled, if only you could use even an ounce of that to improve your general survivability. Then none of this would be an issue,” Clair turned around to face Wright and rested her hands on her hips as she berated her teammate. The priestess’ icy glare shifted slightly to Nessa who stood at the corner still. “Don’t just stand there all slack jawed, apprentice. Make yourself useful.” Clair rubbed at her temples briefly and began to leave the library, “Look what you did, Wright. Making me agitated at the poor new ones.” Her voice trailed off as she left earshot.  
Nessa finally took a deep breath while Wright still stood, shaking his head and laughing off the whole situation. “Always a treat to get her riled up, sorry you had to get in the crossfire too.” Wright waved off without glancing in Nessa’s direction.  
“Wait,” Nessa struggled to continue as the eyepatched man shot a glare over his shoulder at the apprentice, “You’re Wright of The Crimson Shield, correct? We met a few weeks ago and you said I was casting magic wrong. That’s you right?”  
Wright turned around and leaned on one of the bookshelves impatiently, “In the flesh, did you want to prove me wrong or something?” He dropped his joking tone and returned to the threatening demeanor he possessed when they encountered each other for the first time.  
“No, nothing like that,” She desperately searched for courage as she began to make her request, “I was wondering if you could teach me. Teach me how to cast magic correctly, so that I don’t mess up again. I’ve been looking all over trying to find an answer for what I’m doing wrong but I’m completely lost.” Nessa finished with the request she practiced in reciting for when she encountered Wright again. She looked away as to not see his reaction.  
The eyepatched human chuckled to himself in response, “No.” He coldly answered without hesitation. “Hate to disappoint, but I’m no teacher. As for your little stunt at the trials, you failed to draw from your usable mana and instead leached into your own life energy. It’s as scary as it sounds too.” Wright concluded with a smirk as he explained the mistake.  
“Sorry, I guess it was pretty dumb of me to ask you to teach me. I just thought I’d be able to perform better if I was taught like other mages.” Nessa bashfully responded as she inched closer to the corner of the bookshelves to leave when the opportunity arose.  
“You clearly got far enough being self taught,” Wright mumbled encouragement that caught Nessa by surprise, “You don’t need a teacher to lecture you on all the boring crap of magic in order to use it effectively. You just need some guidance on making sure to not fall into any pitfalls. For example.”  
Wright raised his hand from out of view and in his grasp was Nessa’s tome which mysteriously left her grasp in an instant. Before she could protest and question, Wright flipped instinctively to a page without looking and revealed its contents, “This spell here, it looks freshly copied. It appears you were looking for a way to heal your allies with arcane mana then?”  
“Y-Yeah that is correct. I thought it’d be important so I had it on hand if things ever get worse than anticipated.” Nessa swiftly responded as Wright tossed the tome back to her carelessly.  
“I might’ve been just teasing Clair about her healing, but there was truth to what I said. Divine power can perform restorative magic much more efficiently than the arcane ever can. It costs an overabundance of mana to properly even catch up. That spell you have is a gateway to the exact thing I warned you against, spending lifeforce to make up for lack of mana. Otherwise known as blood magic.”  
Nessa froze and shivered at the mere mention of the term and was left speechless.  
“Don’t worry about it too much. You should be able to cast that spell just fine. Just be sure you’re not overexerting yourself and you’ll be alright. Now if you’ll excuse me, I should make sure Clair isn’t strangling anyone right now. Good luck out there.” Wright threw out a half hearted wave and sombered out of the library.  
Nessa waited patiently for Wright to leave out of sight to check up on her arm. She pulled back the baggy sleeve of her new apprentice uniform and inspected where the scar was. The searing pain stung at her with the accompanying knowledge of what it meant wracking her with anxiety. Nessa pulled the sleeve back up and tightened her fist to distract herself from the pain and carried on out of the library.  
In the halls of the guild, she still found many who would see her as a new face and stop to greet her, or equally as often they would sneer and speak under their breath. Though the striking eyes of all she would pass have dulled over the past week, she still occasionally felt ridiculed by the voices of doubt that clouded over her. Despite it all, Nessa gave it her all to keep going even if things were simply mundane and grueling as it was now.  
She turned the corner to a hallway where her designated living quarters was situated. Outside the door to her room, stood Mair, scanning the hall nervously with a crumpled sheet of paper in his grasp. He was suited in gray leather armor for his uniform and had his silver pike sheathed on his back.  
“Took you long enough, I swear I’ve been waiting all morning. I got something important.” Mair rushed in a frenzied whisper as he unfurled the crumpled paper excitedly.  
“I was busy studying, why are you in such a hurry anyways? Wait-” Nessa noticed the sheet he had was identical to the bounties and quests Nessa used to put up when she worked as a papergirl, “Did you take a quest from the bulletin board!? We’re not allowed to take those yet you dumbass!” She swiped it away and held it out of his reach as she scanned the empty hallway to make sure no one had noticed.  
“Come oooon, sis. I watched for a whole hour and not a single team would take this quest. The reward and rank listed on it was probably too low for anyone to pay any attention to it. Who cares if we’re not allowed we have to do something.” Mair protested and attempted to call his sister to action.  
Nessa sighed, she knew he was telling the truth and her gaze passed over the quest. The details were vague and explained to meet with a demiserpus woman in the lower districts of the city. The past few weeks, Mair and her were delegated to simple chores and low risk tasks that anyone could do. No doubt, Nessa felt the desires she had when she first sought to sign up as an adventurer.  
“Alright fine, Mair. But I need you to be careful when we’re out there. Let’s get going quickly and make sure we don’t get noticed by anyone.” Nessa smiled to her brother who nodded in agreement.  
“I knew you couldn’t resist an offer like this.” Mair cockily commented as he snickered.  
“Oh shut it before I report you to Director Veridan.” Nessa rolled her eyes and led her brother through the winding halls of the guild.

After successfully slipping past the guards and personnel of the guild, the two siblings traversed down the walls of the ravine city towards its lowest districts. They found themselves packed tightly on the narrow walkways between the netted drop into the waters below and the hive like homes of the lower districts of Eil’Drawwt. Occasionally dissecting the homes from each other lied crevices that dug into winding tunnels that led outside of the city into the roads of the underground.  
Nessa held the written quest and glanced over the address until she narrowed down the location of the woman who made the request. On the doorstep of her small outlet in the wall of the ravine, a demiserpus woman with thick lime hair appeared panicked and held a child close to her chest as she broke her focus between the nearby tunnels and the walkways.  
She took quick notice of Nessa and Mair and the emblems attached to their uniform and hurried to cross their path, “Excuse me, are you two from the guild?” The woman said through choked tears and struggled to continue, “My eldest went into the tunnels last night and hasn’t returned. The guards ignored my pleas so I made a request to Hidden Star.”  
“Don’t worry don’t worry, we’re from the guild and we’re here to help find your child,” Nessa attempted to comfort the demiserpus through the ordeal, “It’s peculiar that the guards would outright deny to help, but that’s what we’re here for. Do you know which of the tunnels he last entered?”  
The demiserpus sniffled and came to her senses as much as she could, “My neighbors saw him enter the tunnel that led to the abandoned mine just four blocks down. There’s scrapped equipment just outside, you won’t be able to miss it. Thank you so much for your unending kindness, I pray my reward is enough for the both of you.”  
“You don’t need to thank us,” Nessa responded, “And we’re not in it for the reward. We want to help you and your family stay safe. We’ll find your son, I promise you that.”   
Nessa’s heart pounded with aching stress. She put the front of bravery casted over her but she feared failure in this first true mission. The fear and doubt cleared away with the briefest of smiles from the demiserpus. The immediate relief spread to Nessa as a driving force of confidence and aspiration.   
Nessa and Mair hurried forward, they looked to each other with the same thought in mind. A thought and belief that they had to do the right thing and to help those in need. The burning desire connected the two deeper than the blood of family that already tied them. They made each step towards their destination confidently with their ideals paving their path to a crimson sun. The crimson sun that creeped beneath the ground and shone upon their new life.


	5. Ral'Kacet

The sibling duo stopped in their tracks as the destination appeared before them. The start of a series of tunnels dug deeper and deeper into the earth in search of its minerals. Abandoned equipment had laid scattered at each turn before them as the mana crystals that lit the way mysteriously flickered and wavered from their constant cooling fluorescence.  
Nessa’s attention was glued to her tome as she practiced flipping to the correct pages, concluding her practice by slamming it shut and addressing her brother, “One more time I need to make sure we’re clear. The top priority is getting that kid back safe, understood?” Her typical scolding tone rang true in her confirmation.  
“Yeah yeah. I’m not gonna mess this up, sis. I swear on that much,” Mair heaved his pike off his back and held it close in preparation, “What do you think could’ve gotten the kid lost anyways?”  
“Nothing too serious I’d assume,” Nessa took the first steps into the tunnels and looked around for signs of passing, “We’re way too close to the city for anything threatening to make through its defenses.” As she finished speaking, the crystals around her continued to flicker as if losing energy. Its attempts to remain alight slowly lost the fight as it dimmed and dimmed over time.  
The dimming crystal caught her attention but she quickly refocused back on the task at hand. The tunnels around the siblings split into branching paths that seem to continue on into darkness or looping around out of sight. The tunnels were carved near perfectly with the equipment used to make them litter the area.  
“Damn, we’re gonna be stuck for a while if we just loop around this place without direction.” Mair squatted down, observing the rocky ground for any evidence of tracks to no avail. While Mair searched, Nessa turned her gaze to another of the flickering crystals on the ceiling. With a moment of focus and a turn of her wand, the earth around one of the smaller gems softened and the crystal fell into Nessa’s open palm.  
Nessa tuned out the environment around her and focused on the mana of the crystal in her palm. A mental image was painted before her of a disruptive wave of energy overworking the crystal to the point of burning away its remaining mana, leaving nothing but a husk of what it once was.  
“There’s something terribly wrong here,” Nessa whispered under her breath and in her revelation turned to address her brother, “These crystal’s aren’t meant to burn out like this, something must’ve interfered to have caused this black out. No doubt that woman’s child got lost in the darkness.”  
“I understood like half of that,” Mair stood up and slung his pike over his shoulder casually, “But if you think the kid’s further in the dark, this path right here seems to be the best option.” He pointed down one of the many branching paths that was concealed in a pitch black blanket. Nessa’s diluted eyes could only take her vision so far into the absolute darkness but she knew her brother had a much easier time as a full night elf.  
“Lead the way for now then, I’ll be right behind you.” Nessa trailed behind her brother who carried his pike pointed forward, occasionally aiming it instinctively when the crystals around them flickered with the last of their remaining energy.  
“Y’know, I’m at least grateful we have something important to do now,” Mair struck up some conversation as they stepped cautiously through the darkness, “For a while I thought this whole adventure guild thing would be boring as all hell.”  
“Were you really that quick to discredit your childhood dream?” Nessa jokingly teased in a light whisper, “It was only a matter of time until things picked up. Not to mention we sped the process up a bit.”  
“Hey I wasn’t gonna jump ship just yet, not after I’ve put in all the effort into training and the like.”  
“I believe more of your effort went into daydreaming and thinking of lame team names than anything else.” Nessa scoffed in response playfully.  
“Would you quit bringing that up-” Mair lashed out in mild annoyance but was interrupted by a heavy buzz echoing from further down the winding path. A presence shifted in the dark and slithered closer to the siblings in the mask of the vast shade. The creature made itself known as it rose and towered to the ceiling of the tunnel. A long insect with an expanse of curled legs looked down upon the adventurers with a low hiss.  
Without a word or hesitation, Mair held his pike up to the beast ready to keep it back. The territorial insect gnashed its pinsirs and leaned back in preparation to pounce. Before a strike could even be made, a familiar light shone and temporarily blinded those who had adjusted to the pitch black darkness. The interruption laid in the form of a vibrant pulsing light shining off the metal of Mair’s weapon, a light that mimicked the cool colored radiance of the crystals that had all but burned out.  
Nessa stood close behind her brother, her wand shining in the same light and her hand held forward in a conduction of the pulsing lights. The centipede stared into the light and calmed down, sinking down to waist level and remaining near motionless.  
Mair only stood confused and speechless as he watched the once furious creature had turned completely docile. Slowly stepping around the beast, he looked to Nessa desperate for an explanation.  
“They’re domesticated beasts tamed by the hypnotic patterns that the crystals emit. Without them, most insectoid livestock grow wild without dosages of exposure,” She scoffed and then explained while dimming the light on Mair’s pike, “We need to avoid as much conflict as possible, not pick fights with random beasts around here.”  
Mair nodded but kept his focus on the centipede until they finally broke sight passing it by. Their trek through the cavernous paths continued, occasionally looping around into once tread ground and nearly getting lost several ways through. All the while calming the now wild beasts that cut into their path.  
Soon enough, their destination and a relieving sight laid before them. A young demiserpus crouched to the ground with his faint tears echoing through the tunnels. He sat at the mouth of a larger cave with his arm stuck out of view. Once the siblings saw the situation, they hurried to his side to find his arm and leg stuck in a web clinging to the wall.  
“Don’t worry kid,” Mair leaned down to the child and began to cut away at the web restraining the child with a dagger pulled from his belt, “We’re gonna get you out of here real quick, your mom’s worried sick for ya.”  
The demiserpus nodded and wiped his face with his free arm, struggling to even voice out words of gratitude choked behind tears. Nessa smiled with relief that the child was safe and the doubts that clouded her mind quickly parted. Her relief however was just as quickly washed away as she put together the situation at hand. Her attention shifted to the mouth of the cavern past the child to reveal a spiral of webbing encasing the way forward. An array of scarlet eyes gazed past the wall of webs directly at Nessa.  
Fear paralyzed her as the myriad of eyes grew closer with the horrendous sound of legs shifting forward. Nessa broke through the shell of fear and spoke without turning her gaze, “Mair, take the child out of here.” She ordered quickly.  
Mair looked up as his gaze widened in surprise, he lifted the demiserpus up with one arm and gripped at his weapon in the other while stepping away slowly. “Oh, gods,” He spoke under his breath, “You’re not serious are you? We’ll just get out of here together, come on!”  
“Just do what I said.” She muttered as she raised her wand in front of her between the darkness and herself. Nessa knew the encounter to be dangerous and understood her place to keep both the escort and her brother safe. Mair had finally picked up on the gravity of his sister’s decision, he suddenly broke into a sprint towards the exit which caught the attention of the eyes of the darkness.  
Everything occured in the moment, the eyes of the creature shifted forward in chase but was interrupted by the fluorescent cool lights casted from the tip of Nessa’s wand. The sea green and sapphire blue pulses casted the creature in a new light that revealed it to the half elven mage before it. A massive insect creature with a furred body and bladed fangs separating the visage of its thousand eyes. It stared into the hypnotizing lights unphased and raised one of its many clawed legs to bat away the distraction.  
Nessa leaned back to narrowly dodge the strike. She stumbled back, only disarmed of her wand as it ricocheted its way back through the tunnels, the casted lights careening with it as it fell to the rocky floor. Instincts kicked in as Nessa fled from the spider towards her wand, Mair had already left her miniscule dark sight and she could only hear behind her the slow approach of the gargantuan arachnid. Pages flipped through her tome in a nervous frenzy as Nessa dove for her wand. The moment her grasp latched onto the grounded wand, a spell formed in her mind and acted through her motions.  
The wand dragged against the rocky floor with mana sparks striking past in a blur. Using the motion of reaching for the wand, Nessa shifted the momentum of her sprint with a turning leap to aim the sparking apparatus at the creature following her. A stray bolt of violet mana shot out from Nessa’s wand that crashed against the exoskeleton of the spider causing it to stop and flinch from the foreign energy, but ultimately only proving to be a minor annoyance to the towering beast.  
The spider found its new target as Nessa struggled to stand on her feet after her acrobatic maneuver. As the territorial insect made its approach, Nessa barely managed to get on her feet and make a break for one of the tunnel paths. Thoughts and ideas raced through her mind as she made her escape. With a glance backwards, she noticed no change in the spider’s movements or damage to its body from her spell. Nessa made a sharp turn and dropped down a slope, slowing down the spider only ever so slightly before it followed. It clung effortlessly to the ceiling of the sloped tunnel to follow after its prey.  
Nessa closed her tome and quickly tossed it into her bag. As she slid down the slope, she raised her wand and kept her free hand hovering near the tip. Her signature violet sparks gathered at the tip of the wand and with the guidance of her free hand, remained charged and focused at the point. Mana and further power gathered at the wand as Nessa continued to blaze through the maze of tunnels hoping to leave the chasing creature behind to no avail. The spider lunged forward prepared to bite at Nessa’s legs, but failed as its target jumped over the attack and landed onto the spider’s head.  
Nessa struggled to hold back the mana she had carefully charged during the chase, she held her wand down and fired off a portion in the form of a concussive blast that separated the two of them. Nessa had collapsed further down the tunnel while the spider shook off the magical burst quickly. It inched forward cautiously, expecting its downed prey to not give any more of a fight.  
Nessa shifted ever so slightly and rose up to reveal her wand held beneath her still crackling with the culmination of her remaining mana. Before the creature could react to its prey having fight left, Nessa released the charged power of her spell directly above the beast. The earth above the tunnel was torn apart by the beam as chunks of stone and clouds of dust collapsed through the ceiling.  
With an averted gaze, Nessa waited for the dust to settle, relieved to find that the tunnel behind her had collapsed with no sign of the spider in sight. With a heavy sigh and a pat down of her uniform, Nessa made her way out of the old mine with a slight limp to her step.

“Come on, sis…” Mair mumbled under his breath as he waited at the entrance of the mine nervously staring forward and hoping for his sister to show up. The child he had carried out of the mines stood close to Mair, in cover behind the adventurer. Moments passed like minutes as only silence greeted their patience.  
Eventually, an exhausted Nessa arrived out into view and was met with her brother rushing to her side, “Can you not do something that stupid in the future? Doing stupid stuff is supposed to be my thing.” He mentioned while helping her out of the mine and checking her for any injuries.  
“It was the safest thing that could’ve been done,” Nessa smiled to reassure her worried sibling before kneeling down to the young demiserpus, “I think it’s about time we bring you back to your mother don’t you think?” She spoke softly, contrasting with the scrapes and cuts harshening her appearance.  
The boy nodded in agreement and gratitude, his gaze then shifted to the emblem pinned to her uniform “You two are adventurers aren’t you?” He spoke nervously and stumbled over his words yet his eyes sparkled with amazement and his smile brightened, “You must be a part of an awesome team then?”  
Nessa giggled in response, “Well we’re it’s only us two so far,” As she guided the child carefully through the streets, Nessa looked back to her brother, “but if it means anything, our team is known as _Ral’Kacet_.” She told them both.  
Mair crossed his arms and barely held back a laugh, “And here I could’ve sworn you said my team name ideas were lame.”  
Nessa shook her head with a chuckle and looked up at the vast ravine ceiling that acted as the city sky, “Guess that one must’ve grown on me.” She said faintly, remembering it as the catalyst for her younger brother’s aspirations many years ago. Though the name might’ve been childish in nature, she couldn’t help but connect that team name with her brother’s childhood. She walked proudly as a member of _Ral’Kacet,_ elvish for “The Vengeful”.

The artificial stars shone upon the underground city as a night elf adventurer and his half blooded sister returned to the guild, unaware of the shadowed figure who stood far above and watched them. The man rose one of his slender hands to his face as if yawning, while the other caressed one of the stars above him, dimming it ever so slightly just from his touch. Translucent, ashen fairy wings casted a radiant dust around him. The dust washed over him, taking his form away with the faint memory of a smile where he stood.


	6. Rivalry

Constriction. 

An atmosphere of nauseating constriction surrounded and closed in on Nessa as she nervously sat across from Veridan at his desk. The intimidating director silently flipped through a small handful of paperwork in front of him. Only the ticking sound of a wall clock set symmetrically behind him accompanied the deathly silence that clouded over the small office.  
Nessa knew the risks of taking the mission without permission, but failed to realize just how tedious and tiring the process of receiving the consequences would be. Though the wait might’ve been torture, she certainly didn’t regret what she did after she saw the hope return to that mother’s eyes. She knew it had to be done, in her eyes it was the very thing she became an apprentice to do.  
“Miss Nessa,” The Director’s voice carved through the silence, shocking Nessa with the sudden change, “I pray you understand why this is an issue, right? Unauthorized deployment of guild resources reflects directly on the guild. Had anything gone wrong in your quest, the consequences would befall us and our reputation. In most situations this would result in immediate termination of your apprenticeship.” He scolded in a cold rehearsed manner that dug directly through Nessa, causing a shiver to run through her body.  
“Yes sir, I understand the consequences of my actions.” She responded, carefully hiding the trembling in her voice.  
“It’s a miracle that no issues arose on your little excursion. I’d even say it went smoothly,” Veridan spoke with a mere hint of pride in his voice, “I believe it’d be best to move you and your brother to the next stage of apprenticeship earlier than anticipated to prevent these situations in the future.” He said calmly as he flipped through the paperwork in front of him  
Nessa perked up from the alarming response, a part of her wanted to question The Director’s decision but she ultimately remained quiet to let Veridan continue.  
“You’ll be free to go, but I’d like you to reiterate what exactly you mentioned was happening in that mine you explore. I want to make sure this report is correct.”  
“I didn’t understand the situation completely, but to me it appeared that the crystals lighting the caverns were expended of all of their mana. I’ve never seen them burn out like that and yet hundreds of them in that one area were all extinguished,” Nessa recollected the mission and recalled the strange happenings to Veridan, “Director Veridan, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about what that means, do you?” Nessa questioned, desperate to know what it all meant.  
The Director set down his paperwork and guided his hand over what looked to be a holy symbol sitting on his desk, “I’m no historian, and I’m certainly not as old as I may look. I know vaguely that the crystals we use for lighting the darkness were ancient gifts from the church of Aunderr. Clair of The Crimson Shield is a priestess of Aunderr, unfortunately Hela and her are both on a quest taking them to the surface for a few months.” As Veridan hovered his hand over the symbol of Aunderr carefully, Nessa hardly noticed as she fixated on the fact Hela was away for the upcoming months. She felt slightly sick to her stomach with it in mind that she didn’t have anyone to go to if she needed help. No one was nearly as approachable and kind to Nessa as Hela was and the supposed absence of her struck hard.  
While Nessa was distracted by this revelation, she hadn’t realized Veridan had continued speaking and reached a near conclusion, “As a result, it’d be best to allow a more qualified team to handle this quest. Deliver this report to a Reptir named Illz, the mission will be handed off to his team and for the time being you’ll be assigned this quest here.” Before Nessa could object, the two envelopes were pushed towards her side of the desk and Veridan gave a clear dismissal of her company.  
“Wait, my brother and I were the ones that actually discovered the issue! Shouldn’t we have more of a part in all this?” Nessa called upon whatever bravery she had in order to speak against The Director, an action she immediately found to regret.  
Veridan’s eyes aimed at Nessa with murderous intent and yet he spoke as emotionlessly as usual, “I respect that you’ve allowed this investigation to begin with your recent transgression, however you and your brother are still far from proving you possess the resources, ability, and fortitude to handle this task. I pray this discussion is over then?”  
Nessa promptly nodded in defeat and slunk out of the office into the winding halls of the Hidden Star Guild. As she wandered, asking around for Ilz, a shadow of doubt of her own ability continued to follow her. She understood why the quest couldn’t be fulfilled by her, but losing the agency to make a difference struck at her. Despite the crushing feeling weighing her down, Nessa still searched for the reptir until eventually her inquiries led her to a corner of the guild she hadn’t yet gotten acquaintanced with.  
Nessa found herself surrounded by what seemed to be exhibits of artifacts upon artifacts and galleries of portraits detailing adventurers of old who made The Hidden Star to what it was today. The halls she walked were dimly lit with the lights drawing attention to the historic pieces laid before her. Troubles washed away as her focus shifted to the mesmerizing allure of the past that she had only heard in stories. Something drew her further in, until she stopped at what appeared to be a main attraction. At the center of everything, a towering hill of rock decorated with mana crystals that led up to the spire housed an artifact that the very light of the room seemed to move towards.  
Sheathed in stone at the top of the hill, a halberd forged in a brilliant sun golden color and weathered from perhaps centuries of use stood proudly above everything in the area. Its blade shimmered with cool lights as it appeared to be made with the same material of the mana crystals. Its pulses were dim but not due to its own weakness, Nessa felt the radiating magical aura of the weapon before her, it felt of mana held back and concealed from what it could be.  
In the midst of Nessa’s admiration, a shrill voice shocked her out of her focused state, “Excuse me, are you the new apprentice that was looking for me?” Nessa searched back and forth for the source of the voice but couldn’t find anything, “Down here.” The voice spoke again with a hint of disappointment.  
A small reptilian apprentice no taller than two feet hopped up onto the railing separating Nessa from the halberd exhibit so that he could stand at eyesight with her. He wore a similar outfit to Nessa herself with the exception of a wide brimmed mage’s hat which he promptly adjusted to fix the slight crookedness he perceived.  
“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to- well yes I was looking for you, you’re Ilz right?” Nessa tripped over her words as she grew embarrassed of her mistake. She had forgotten that the reptir people varied greatly in their height and builds which contradicted the expectations she had in mind.  
“Yes yes, I am Ilz Alvine. And you’re that new apprentice, Nessa was it?” Ilz smiled a toothy grin which set Nessa at ease, he didn’t seem upset at all at her which she found reassuring.  
“Yeah, that would be me. Well, Director Veridan said this quest would be better suited in your hands, I assume you have some prior knowledge of the mana crystals and their behavior then, Ilz?” Nessa handed over the report the director had given her, Ilz opened it up and looked through the documents inside.  
“Well it is a field I passionately study, why that’s precisely why I’m here with most of my time.” Ilz motioned over to the halberd exhibit before the both of them as he walked the railing he stood on delicately, “When the humans were introduced to the underground, they were led by night elven diplomats who sought to repair the relations between the surface and the underground. Accompanying them were devout priests of Aunderr,” Ilz paused as the two had circled to see the halberd in a different light, watching it glimmer and shine with the light of the other mana crystals reflecting off of it, “Aunderr gifted the hierophant at the time with this artifact and the knowledge of the mana crystals. Ever since then, the church extended light all over the underground, significantly improving life for everyone. Unfortunately, most of that knowledge wasn’t passed down with the church, and scholars like myself are left with scraps of their secrets.”  
Nessa nodded patiently, carefully trying to wrap her head around what Ilz was talking about exactly, “Well hopefully the knowledge you do have on hand can help you out. If you can, keep me updated on the progress of the quest, and please let me know if you need any help.” She insisted which led to Ilz perking up in glee.  
“You seem fairly invested in all of this, are you possibly as interested in the study of mana crystals as myself? I would not hesitate to share my notes and discoveries!” Ilz ecstatically inquired as his scaled tail wagged slightly from his excitement.  
“Oh, uh, nothing like that unfortunately,” Nessa politely declined, “Director Veridan didn’t want me working on this quest, but it feels off for me to start something and not see it through. That’s all it is really.”  
Ilz nodded in understanding, “I see I see, early apprenticeship will always be a bore, but you’ll have more freedom in the guild once you’re older and more experienced. Trust me, I had to go through the same thing.”  
Nessa sighed in response, “Uh, Ilz. I get the needing more experience part, but I really doubt getting any older is the problem with me. I’m in my twenties, quite a bit older than the other apprentices."  
“O-Oh! Excuse me, I assumed you joined at the usual age, I apologize I must’ve thought so-” Ilz desperately tried to apologize as he thought  
“I guess we both suffer from being a little short then huh?” Nessa barely kept back her giggling as they both eased up with her last comment. The both of them shared in the laughter at their similar expenses. The two apprentices talked and shared their experiences and stories with each other until they eventually parted for their own paths. Nessa left with a smile on her face, Hela might’ve been gone for the time being, but other apprentices like Ilz appeared very welcoming.  
As Nessa left for her living quarters, she looked through the folder that contained the new quest she was assigned to. A few details stood out to her, something of a thief causing troubles for a village nearby. Before Nessa could get the exact information out of the report, she was caught unaware as she bumped directly into another guild member while walking.  
The two of them fell back as the papers of the report scattered around them, “Oww...Sorry that was my fault, I should’ve been paying more attention.” Nessa apologized as she rubbed her head where the impact was made. She looked up to find a guild apprentice she hadn’t seen before. Sitting before her was a pale skinned frail looking human with disheveled black hair.  
“It’s alright,” Her voice was hushed and soft spoken, she swiftly gathered the papers that landed near her, and with a quick glimpse at them, offered them back to Nessa politely, “I was rushing and I didn’t realize anyone else was in the halls at this hour, I’m sorry…”  
“I guess we both should be a little more aware,” Nessa said with a giggle as she accepted the report back from the human girl. The both of them, equally as bashful left in opposite directions. The human girl looked over her shoulder at Nessa, waiting for her to leave sight or turn a corner. When she did, the apprentice unfolded a note hidden on her person and quickly jotted something down, “Come on, Eve, just remember what it said…” Eve whispered to herself before hiding away the note and hurrying off.

It was still late in the night with the artificial stars shining through the gaps in the guild walls as Eve found her way through the outer halls of the guild outside the living quarters of apprentices. She stopped outside one of the doors and gave a light knock before letting herself in.  
The room was a clear mess as Eve stepped over the clutter to get to the center of the room. Inside were two other apprentices, Kross sat near the corner sharpening the blade of his axe with little of his attention turning to Eve as she entered. While the demiserpus known as Rex stood at the very end of the room leaned against the cracked wall, twirling a dart between his fingertips.  
“What’d you find Eve?” Rex asked impatiently, he looked past Eve with his focus drawn to a dartboard already tacked with several darts close to the bullseye.  
“Just as you expected, those new recruits got an expedition quest out to Viiest,” Eve rummaged for the hidden note and handed it off to Rex, “I remembered all the important details like you asked, but what exactly are we planning to do, boss?”  
The demiserpus took the note and eyed over the details before folding it back up, “The Director’s been ignoring us for too long just for one slip up, if those new recruits could get away with acting out of line I’m sure it’d be alright if we accompanied them for a little help don’t you think?” Rex laughed it off with his fanged smile bearing through. Both Kross and Eve remained quiet as Rex spoke confidently, “So we’re gonna cause some trouble and swoop in to complete the quest for ourselves, no real damage done and we improve our standing with the guild while we’re at it.”  
Eve nervously tried to interject her teammate’s planning, “Are you sure we should really meddle in this though, Nessa seemed nice enough, I’d hate if we ruined it for them.”  
Rex held a dart up and haphazardly aimed it in the direction of the dartboard, “Just think of it as some healthy competition between two adventuring teams, we won’t be doing her any actual harm,” Rex tossed the dart with a simple flick, the metal tip of the dart cut through the air and landed precisely into the bullseye, “A little rivalry has never hurt anyone.”


	7. Surrounded In The Dark

Slowly crawling its way through a road beneath the earth, a carriage drawn by beast sized insects made its way out of the city of Eil’Drawwt. The adventurer siblings, Nessa and Mair, waited patiently in the carriage as its escorts. Mair found himself leaning his head out of the open carriage to peer down the tunnel ahead.Nessa instead kept glued to her open tome and the mission report given by Director Veridan.  
  
The report seemed simple on the surface, but as Nessa paid further attention to the hidden details, more and more did it seem strange to her. The report detailed a thief yet to be seen by the residents and as well appeared to have struck each night with nary a sighting or encounter. Not to mention the lost merchandise and belongings ultimately resulted in mild inconveniences for the citizens. With that sort of talent, Nessa wondered why the thief had so little in their sights.   
  
“We’re coming up on Viiest,” Her thoughts were interrupted by the carriage driver addressing them, “Don’t worry about payment, the guild has it all covered, stay safe.” The night elf driver tipped his helmet to the siblings with a smile. 

Nessa thanked the man before looking out at the destination they approached. The town was an extreme downgrade from the architectural wonder of her home. Buildings and homes were haphazardly constructed and the lights of mana crystals were few and far in between, forcing the residents to carry lanterns as they went about their duties.   
  
The carriage pulled to a halt which prompted Mair to hop over the side, restless after the long ride, “Another second and I might’ve turned to dust,” he complained as he stretched his arms and legs, “Let’s go talk to the lord here and start doing something.”   
  
Nessa rolled her eyes at her brother’s childish behavior as she exited the carriage politely. Her attention diverted as she scanned her surroundings in search of the town lord’s residence, but her search was quickly halted when she noticed an unexpected sight in the distance. A trio stood at the steps of a modest hall, not too far from the edge of town they were dropped off at, seemingly in conversation with a formally dressed man giving them directions as he pointed around. 

Confusion set in for Nessa as she noticed the trio wore Hidden Star guild uniforms, “Something’s off,” Nessa mumbled to herself before speaking up to her brother, “It looks like some adventurers are already talking to the lord down over there.” She remained perplexed.  
  
“Wait, seriously?” Mair walked over to get the same view as her sister and saw the ending of the conversation as the lord returned back indoors, “Veridan gave this quest to us, not to whoever these guys are.”   
  
“I’m sure we can get a reasonable explanation, it’s probably some dumb misunderstanding,” Nessa calmed her brother down as she approached the trio, but stopped in her tracks as the adventurers turned around to reveal themselves. The head of the three waved nonchalantly to Nessa with a devious smirk painted across his face.  
  
“Hey Nessie, funny seeing you here,” The demiserpus, Rex, was a familiar face to Nessa during her trials to be accepted at the guild. She proceeded to recognize the other two with him as the serpus who dueled with her brother and the human girl who she bumped into the night before was hiding behind the serpus only to peek out occasionally, “What brings you so far out from the city?” Rex inquired, still carrying his smile.  
  
“It’s Nessa, and the guild sent us out here to take care of a thief problem, you wouldn’t have happened to hear about that from the lord did you?" Nessa rebutted.

"Guess we did hear the half of it from him, didn't we? In fact he must've assumed we were the adventurers set out to help him, so he gave us the rundown." Rex stepped forward to look down at Nessa, "So how about you just let us handle this and head back to the guild."

Mair stepped between his sister and the demiserpus, threatening to shove Rex back, "What's your problem?" Mair grew heated at Rex's demeanor, "The guild entrusted this to us and you're trying to pry us out of it? Why're you acting like such a prick?" 

"Calm it down friend, you're causing a bit of a scene here," Rex motioned around them, civilians paused to observe what seemed to be a fight starting up between outsiders, "If you're so adamant on staying here, let's just see who catches that thief first. It'll be some fun competition."

"Competition?" Nessa made sure to keep her voice low and calm despite getting worked up, "Do you really think this is some game to play? We're here to help, not to compete."

"You can't be that oblivious are you Nessie?" Rex chuckled, "Not every ragtag bunch of adventurers makes it big just helping the elderly and finding lost pets. We're always competing whether you're aware of that or not. Best you learn that now if you want to survive. Now I'd love to chat, but we've got a thief to catch." Rex motioned to his allies and they followed him off to the outskirts of town.

Both Mair and Nessa were left nearly speechless at the situation at hand until Mair finally spoke up, "Sorry, I shouldn't have gotten all worked up there." He mumbled, sounding defeated.

"It's alright Mair. We need to worry about where we're going to be staying the night though, the lord was supposed to provide housing but Rex and his team already took that from us too."

Mair took a look around the town, "Who knows, they might have an inn or tavern or something. Let's take a look around and hope for the best." Nessa only nodded in response.  
The downtrodden mood set upon the both of them as they silently wandered the town in search of some haven for them. The confined nature of the town limited the length of their search as eventually they stopped at a modest inn made of stone with an aged but welcoming sign near the entrance. One small gem of a mana crystal hung from a chain in front of the door, guiding their vision towards the entrance.  
  
“This doesn’t look too bad does it?” Mair said as he hopped up the steps to the door with his sister close behind.  
  
“Better than anything we’ll get around here, that much is true.” Nessa followed through and opened the door into the inn, walking into the nearly barren and empty interior.  
It was a simple run of the mill tavern, a tan skinned human with short black hair stood behind a counter at the end of the room. She was locked in conversation with a blue scaled reptir whose focus was more keen on his drink than the actual discussion at hand. The innkeeper soon noticed the visitors and broke into a smile.  
  
“Hail there,” The older human woman jubilantly greeted the elven siblings, “Welcome to The River Dragon, feel free to take a seat anywhere or come right up!” The innkeeper quickly gathered up the leftover glasses on the counter from her one other patron and hurriedly cleaned up anything that appeared out of order.  
  
The siblings both greeted the innkeeper back and flocked to a nearby table, Nessa took out a small bag from her pack and handed it to Mair, “See if they have any rooms open for the night, I’m going to look through the map the guild gave us and see where we could head first.” Mair complied and walked over to the counter.  
  
The innkeeper, still in a cleaning panic, rushed to address Mair as he approached the tavern counter, “What can I get for ya, sweetie?” She leaned over the counter with a smile painted across her face.  
  
“I was hoping to see if you had any rooms my sister and I could stay in? Just for the night is alright but we’re not too sure when our business here will be finished unfortunately.” Mair explained while opening up the small pouch his sister gave to him.  
  
“Rooms?” The innkeeper’s eyes shifted to Mair’s chest and found the Hidden Star apprenticeship emblem pinned onto his uniform, “Oh you two are those adventurers that got called in aren’t ya? Well if you’re helpin’ get rid of that nasty thief lurkin’ about, I’m sure a few copper would be a fair price don’t ya think?”  
  
Before Mair could answer, the reptir looked up from his glass and sat up from his slouch, revealing just how towering he was even while seated, “Mariah, the adventurers you’re thinking of already came into town hours ago. Don’t go jumping to conclusions.” The reptir’s voice was deep and threatening, and his scarred face aged from battle matched it precisely.  
  
Mair dropped some copper coins onto the table and turned his attention to the reptir, “I know it sounds crazy and all, but the guild sent us here and those jerks are scavenging off our work. So now my sister and I are left to do this on our own basically.”   
  
The innkeeper, Mariah, shot a glare towards the reptir before shuffling the coin away and placing a key in front of Mair, “See Fausm, maybe I’m not the one jumpin’ to conclusions now am I? Don’t worry sweetie, he just gets cranky when he ain’t buzzed yet.” She remarked which prompted Fausm to down the rest of his glass in silence.  
  
“No worries,” Mair picked up the key from the counter, “Thank you again, hopefully we can make it up to you by catching that thief.”  
  
“Speaking of that,” Nessa called over to her brother as she stood over an opened map of the area, “I might have an idea on where they might be hiding out.” Mair approached and looked over her shoulder, “The guild at least provided us this to work with. It’s not much, but the tunnels around here are named, all except these routes here.” She continued to point out, “They’re not used anymore because they’ve just been made inefficient by later made tunnels, making them suitable to hide out in.”  
  
“You really thought this all up quickly didn’t you.” Mair mumbled with a laugh, confused at Nessa’s logic somewhat.  
  
“I just don’t want to fall behind,” Nessa retorted back with a slight crack in her voice and gathered up her things hastily, “I’ll meet you at the edge of town, Mair.” Without waiting for a response, she rushed out of the inn.  
  
Mair tried to say something to slow her down but she was out of the door before he could react, he turned to the innkeeper as he followed after his sister, “Sorry about leaving so soon but we’ll be back later!”   
  
“A pleasure havin’ ya!” Mariah waved off Mair as the inn emptied back to its usual occupancy, “Aren’t young adventurers just the cutest, Fausm. Let’s hope they don’t run into too much trouble.” The innkeeper happily remarked as she placed a newly filled drink at her customer’s seat. When she looked up though she found Fausm had already left as well.  
  
“Always up to somethin’.” The innkeeper rolled her eyes and leaned onto the counter alone.  
  
  
  
  
“C’mon Nessa, what was that all about?” Mair had finally caught up to his sister at the edge of town who was crouched over the ground at the entrance of the deserted tunnel.  
  
“Look here,” Nessa seemed to ignore Mair’s questioning as her hands traced over the ground outside the tunnel, “Plenty of prints, mostly recent, looks like someone was using this path for a while.”   
  
“Reassuring,” Mair mumbled sarcastically, “But you didn’t answer my question, why are you in such a reckless rush? It’s not like you at all.”  
  
Nessa stood up and held her tome and wand tighter in her grasp, looking away from her brother’s gaze, “Sorry, you’re right. I need to calm down,” She took a deep breath and loosened up, “What Rex said earlier was getting to me. I got wrapped up in the idea that I have to compete with others to be a real adventurer, but that’s only a minor element of the truth of it all.”  
  
“Exactly, he was just trying to get under your skin and throw you off,” Mair kept up his support with a wide smile on his face, “Now let’s get through this, with your usual caution.”  
  
Nessa couldn’t help but catch her brother’s contagious smile as they began to follow the tracks through the old tunnel, “It still bothers me that his allies can stand with him despite this, or even that there are other adventurers who share his ideals that we’re always at each other’s throats. I guess there’s a lot about the culture we still don’t know much about.”  
  
“Maybe, but I have a feeling that not a lot of adventurers share those ideas really. Just doesn’t seem right you know?” the two of them continued their conversation until they eventually came across an intersection leading both left and right while a sheer drop followed forward.  
  
Mair stopped to look in both directions but Nessa kept going to look over the edge, “Any idea where to go? The tracks are getting faint.”  
  
“Over here,” Nessa leaned down behind a rock at the edge where a rope ladder hung down a dozen meters down to an extension of the tunnel, “I have a feeling we should go down there.”  
  
Mair nudged at the top of the ladder to test its durability before ultimately agreeing and leading the way down as Nessa followed close behind. The cavern that surrounded them closed in as they climbed deeper into the complete darkness, alleviated only by the elven eyes that helped them see in the pitch black. Eventually Mair reached the bottom and waited for his sister when a sound echoed from above.  
  
A cold snap rang out as the ladder loosened completely, Nessa yelped as she lost her balance but was luckily caught from the couple meter fall by Mair who quickly set her out of the way of the rest of the ladder falling down with her. Though they couldn’t see above to what exactly happened, they could clearly see that the ladder was cut from the top by someone.  
  
“Looks like we found something.” Mair reached for his pike as he attempted to see what was above them, while Nessa took a look at their surroundings to find the tunnel system had been expanded compared to the map she had read. Just at the edge of her vision she saw piles of supply crates and a glint of metal rising up to eye level further down one of the tunnels.  
  
Nessa gasped at the realization of what she was looking at and flipped her tome open quickly. The echoing crack of a crossbow firing rang out as the metal glint in the distance flung itself towards the siblings. With a swing of her wand, a violet barrier was casted in front of Nessa and covered both Mair and herself, the soaring crossbow bolt struck and cracked the momentary screen that shielded them. The bolt dropped to the ground with a clink as the magical barrier dissipated. 

Mair’s attention turned to their assailant as the two siblings prepared to fight back, “Nessa, we have to go. Now.” Mair said quietly.  
  
Nessa aimed her wand forward and saw the crossbowman, still concealed by the shadows, stepping forward while loading another bolt, “What? But we have to catch him!” She scolded back.  
  
“He’s not alone,” He muttered, the realization hit Nessa that he could see further down the tunnel, “There’s about four more and counting, come on!” Mair pointed out a route nearby with his pike and stood in front of his sister. Nessa hesitated at first to let Mair take the front against their attackers but ultimately ran out for their escape. Mair soon followed, keen not to turn his back completely to them.  
  
An arrow shot out from the darkness, lodging itself at the edge of Mair’s side. He cursed from the pain but kept running with his sister.  
  
“Are you alright?!” Nessa was set into a near panic at the sight.  
  
“I’m fine!” Mair replied through gritted teeth as they hurried down darkened paths.  
  
They cut into sharp turns in an attempt to lose the fevered sound of footsteps echoing behind them accompanied by shouts calling to action and the scathing sounds of steel drawn from their sheathes. Mair soon took the lead to better guide them through the darkness but stopped in his tracks as he noticed a figure standing in the middle of the tunnel they turned onto.  
  
Neither he or Nessa could make out the stranger’s features at first, except that their shadowed outline was towering at nearly 8 feet tall and carried with it a massive broadsword. The figure stepped forward slowly, entering Mair’s and soon Nessa’s sight to reveal himself as the blue scaled reptir from the inn.  
  
Mair raised his pike to Fausm, which prompted an answer as the broadsword was heaved in front of him in a defensive stance. Silence followed as their conversation was soon to be made in the clashing of steel.


	8. Pieces To The Puzzle

Tension rose between Mair and Fasum. At any moment it appeared that they would strike at the other’s throat, and yet even in their prepared states, the sound of echoing footsteps grew nearer and nearer as the attackers approached. 

Nessa grew anxious at the stalemate in front of her combined with the threat of being cornered. In a moment of decisive action, Nessa whipped her wand in Fausm’s direction, unleashing a bolt of mana that streaked swiftly towards its target.

The steel of Fausm’s blade shifted at a speed alarming to the elven siblings. The bolt of mana halted against the swinging blade, Fausm’s wrist flicked forward, bouncing the mana bolt off his blade hurling towards Mair. With little time to react, Mair rose his buckler to defend himself.

He prepared for impact. But the bolt narrowly whizzed past him.

Both Nessa and Mair checked behind them, utterly confused. The bolt had struck dead center on the chest of one of their pursuers turning the corner, falling to the ground from the direct hit. The company with the downed attacker slowed their approach. This gave Fausm time to step in front of the siblings, standing between them and those that chased after them. 

The attackers hesitated to engage against the towering reptir carrying the broadsword. Eventually one lunged forward with a blade poised to strike at Fausm’s abdomen. What followed was a masterful showing of combat, a brutal dance of strength. The reptir parried the blade with a slight movement of his hilt. With his attacker opened up, Fausm effortlessly raised his weapon only to drop the full weight of it with a hilt strike to his opponent’s shoulder. The attacker fell to his knees under the crushing strike and was then batted to the ground with a devastating swing from the reptir’s fist.

Fausm continued to step forward toward the stunned remainder, and without hesitation they turned tail and fled back from whence they came.

“Typical,” Fausm heaved his blade up and set it over his shoulder, with the tunnels cleared he turned his attention to the siblings, “Next time you decide to recklessly wander off somewhere, don’t.” The reptir spoke coldly in his croaking voice.

“I’ll admit that we were being reckless,” Nessa apologized, “But this must be where the thief has been hiding out.”

“Hate to break it to you, but these aren’t thieves. They’re just a band of sellswords camping out near the village.” Fausm informed the siblings and began to walk through the tunnels while Nessa and Mair followed.

“Why would sellswords just outright attack us though?” Mair questioned from behind the towering reptir.

“I’d like the answer to that too,” Fausm calmly answered, “I’m taking the two of you out of here and I’ll be having a word with their leader.”

The trio’s cautious walk through the corridors of the hideout was accompanied only by the sound of their footsteps as a commanding need for silence loomed over them. Nessa’s fists clenched instinctively as she grew upset over her foolish mistake. She tried to calm herself down as the aching stings of her wrist returned with her fluctuating emotions. Nessa desperately tried to distract herself from the creeping thoughts of failure that echoed in her mind. The still fresh words from Rex mingled with her self doubt, casting her into a melancholy state.

While Nessa was stuck in her own head, she hadn’t realized both Mair and Fausm stopped in front of her. They had all entered a more open area of the cavern and her gaze was turned up to an elevated platform near the ceiling. Sitting with his legs hanging off the platform, a night elf masked in the shadows toyed with blades he had in each hand. The stranger’s eyes looked up to the siblings briefly before turning back to Fausm, forcing a sigh out of the man as he stood up.

“Of all the days to boast your moral superiority, you chose today didn’t you Fausm.” The sellsword twirled one of his blades in his hands as he looked down upon the trio.

“Guess so, care to explain why you’re after these adventurers? So desperate for work that you’re resorting to killing some apprentices?” Fausm retorted back while heaving his greatsword out for use.

“Hey now, we weren’t about to kill the kids,” The presumed sellsword captain flipped his blade in the faint gleaming lights of a nearby mana crystal, shining it upon his scarred face, “Part of the job was keeping them alive. And with the pay offered up, those terms were certainly worth it. Fausm, you know full well the dry spell my boys have gone through, without this gig, who knows what’ll happen.” The sellsword’s voice lowered as he appealed to Fausm.

“We’ve all been suffering, but that doesn’t excuse you stooping so low as to target guild members. Call off the job, Velld.” Fausm didn’t waver in the slightest as he stood his ground against the sellsword captain, “You two,” He turned his attention to the siblings, “Head out this tunnel down there, it’ll lead you back to town, now go.” 

With the orders called out, Mair looked to Nessa. Still lost in thought, she hesitated briefly, but eventually headed off with Mair behind her to the tunnel. The sellsword captain leapt down from the platform, aimed to descend onto the escaping siblings with his twin blades. Fausm took it upon himself to stand between them, stopping the blades with the sheer size of his greatsword and pushing the captain off to the side.

“I don’t get you Fausm,” Velld muttered as he picked himself up, “You of all people should know how difficult mercenary work is compared to the liberties you once had as an adventurer. The guild spreads its greedy limbs over the whole underground, snatching up any real work we can be proud to take while we’re left with the scraps. But those scraps ain’t all there is, sometimes there’s a real meal that the guild just won’t touch for one reason or the other. That’s where we’re forced to operate.”

Fausm’s grip tightened on the hilt of his sword, “I’m not saying the system’s fair in any way, but take it out on these kids and you’ll never come to gain anything of it. Once this is over, Mariah and I will help you through these times as best we can, but not if you continue this dangerous game you’re playing.”

“I can’t in good conscience let a job of this calibre let slip when I’ve got mouths to feed. Stand in my way if you’d like, I’ll try to limit the amount of new scars I carve into you, friend.” The captain said with a smile as he stepped forward to engage the reptir.

“Took the words out of my mouth.” Fausm growled back with a faint smile on his face.

“You think that guy will be alright?” Mair questioned as his sister and him ran through the tunnel, he kept his hand glued to his side where the arrow still had him punctured.

“Can you focus on yourself right now please?” Nessa retorted with a hint of worry in her voice when she suddenly was forced to halt as a pair of sellswords crossed into her path.

The sellsword raised their blades in preparation to capture the siblings, prompting Nessa and Mair to bring out their own weapons in hopes of defending themselves. The altercation began without words. The sellsword approached but were kept at bay due to the reach of Mair’s pike threatening them. Nessa backed behind her brother and conducted her wand to create a collection of needles that shot out towards their attackers.

The magical needles struck at them in flashes of violet light, snapping against their clothes and armor, forcing action out of them. The sellswords broke the line Mair held, allowing Mair to knock one of them to the side. With the advantage held, Mair kicked the blade out of his grasp and swiped the blunt end of his pike over the downed sellsword’s head to knock him out.

While Mair had his own battle, the other sellsword got past him. Nessa noticed the breech in their frontline and prepared a concussive spell. The pages of her tome flipped to the right page as she pushed her wand forward. A powerful wind left from her and threatened the balance of the sellsword. Despite the spell, he was able to stand his ground and close the distance between himself and Nessa.

In a sudden moment, Nessa felt her casting arm restrained. Her wrist stung at the contact with her faded scars as the sellsword held her arm in place above her head. Nessa’s vision turned in slow motion as she watched the sellsword raise his blade to strike at her with. Panic raced through Nessa’s mind, she tried to look over at her tome but her eyes were glued to the incoming sword. She heard only the pounding of her heart and felt only the aching of her wrist. With no other options available, her body made the decision to save her. Nessa ripped out of the grasp of the sellsword, swinging her wand down across his body like a blade of her own. A violet and scarlet concoction of magical color washed over her wand and hand as Nessa’s gaze was fixed to the floor at her feet. 

Reality kicked in for Nessa as she noticed blood pooling in front of her and dripping from her hand. The sounds of her surroundings returned as she heard the sellsword’s gasping screams as he fell to the ground. A deep gash ran across his body where Nessa swung her wand. Nessa backed away, still desperate to realize what was going on. Before she could take in what was happening, her wrist was grabbed once more.

“Let’s go Nessa!” Mair pulled her out of her ordeal, guiding her further down the tunnel while she was still lost in her trance. The images still flickered in the back fo her mind but eventually she came back into reality completely. The light at the end of the tunnel proved a relieving sight for the siblings as they left the den of the sellswords.

“Owwww.”

Hours later, Nessa and Mair sat in beds in opposite ends of a room in Mariah’s tavern. Nessa flipped through her tome, still lost in thought over the fate of the man she defended herself against. While Mair was curled up on his bed, toying at the bandages wrapped across his abdomen where the arrow was pulled out from.

“Owwww” Mair groaned again as he poked at the bandaged wound again.

“By the gods Mair,” Nessa slammed her tome down onto her lap and whipped her glare at her brother, “I painstakingly healed you up completely, there’s no way you’re in more pain now than before.”

“All the adrenaline gone. All that remains is pain and misery.” Mair moaned in a defeated tone.

“You’re insufferable sometimes.” Nessa buried herself back into her tome when she heard a knock at the door, “The door’s open.” Nessa announced, assuming it was the innkeeper.

She was correct in the assumption as the tan skinned human stepped into the room with a tray of food and water for the two siblings, “Everything alright honeys?” She kindly asked while placing the tray on a table near the door, “I’m sorry you had such a tough time with those fellas, Fausm told me all about what happened when he came back around.”

Nessa shot to attention, “Is he alright too?”

Mariah smiled warmly to Nessa, “Oh he’s all peachy, he came back just half an hour ago. He said somethin’ about talkin’ to the lord about those sellswords, no doubt coverin’ for ‘em again.” Mariah shook her head in disapproval of Fausm.

Nessa closed her tome and put it back in her satchel, getting up to head out, “I’ll be back, I’m just gonna thank Fausm for helping us out.” She smiled back to Mariah before stopping by Mair’s bed, “You promise not to be a pain while I’m gone?”

“I promise nothing.” Mair coldly remarked as if his soul was leaving his body. Nessa scoffed lightly and left out the door past the innkeeper.

Mariah noticed Mair’s discomfort and shifted slightly, pulling out a necklace of prayer beads from beneath her sleeve, “Still in pain from that ol’ arrow huh?”

Mair turned his attention to Mariah, his gaze fixed on the holy symbol in her hands, “I mean, well, I’m alright. I’ll get over it soon enough.” Mair attempted to sit up but the pain in his side forced him back down.

“Don’t worry honey,” Mariah waved the symbol over Mair briefly, a faint pink light waved with her hand as a soothing feeling of patience washed over the young night elf. In almost an instant, Mair felt his pain dull and his worries fade away out of recollection.

“Woah,” Mair sat up without discomfort and felt in awe at the miraculous effects, “How did you do that? Is that magic?” 

“A little bit of yes, little bit of no,” Mariah giggled as she flipped the prayer beads back up her sleeve, “Holy magic just has it’s own things. Used to be a priestess back in the day an’ all that.”

As Mariah spoke, Mair looked up at the innkeeper and noticed her sleeve was still pulled up ever so slightly. Just where her wrist was supposed to be, what seemed to be a metal bar was latched to her hand and traveled further up her arm. Mair decided not to bring it up and pushed past it.

“Well thank you again for that, I feel infinitely better.” Mair showed his gratitude again to the innkeeper, until his attention was turned to the window at his side. Out from one of the tunnels of the small town, the human girl from Rex’s team stepped back into the outskirts of town, looking around nervously.

Nessa walked the paths through town, searching for the reptir known as Fausm. It wasn’t long until he stuck out to her as a sore thumb compared to the smaller residents of the town. She approached cautiously until eventually they came across each other.

“Don’t tell me you’re sneaking off somewhere again.” Fausm groaned in a light tone.

“No, nothing like that,” Nessa smiled, “I just wanted to thank you for helping my brother and I. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t showed up to save us.”

“Think nothing of it, keeping those bastards in check is the least I can do as a mercenary myself. They really are ruining the name for all of us.” Fausm laughed heartily, something Nessa hadn’t yet seen out of him.

“If it means anything, you certainly seemed nothing like them,” Nessa responded warmly. Though as she laughed with Fausm, a cold thought crawled into her mind, “Well in truth, I also sought you out for an answer on something.”

Fausm was silent for a moment, almost as if searching through Nessa’s expression for the question before she asked it, “If you’re wondering about that sellsword you cut up bad, he’s alive.” A weight was lifted off Nessa’s heart as she heard the truth, “You got him good but you hit nothing vital so he’s recovering, slowly. I take it you haven’t taken anyone’s life yet.”

Nessa dropped her forward gaze as an admittance to Fausm’s assumption, “I understand I’ll have to eventually. It’s an unavoidable part of this path that I’ll have to accept. But I’m still afraid.”

“Good.” Fausm muttered, shocking Nessa with his response, “Without that fear and hesitation to kill, there’s nothing seperating you from the outlaws and criminals you’ll encounter. Killing won’t get easier, but you’ll know that it’s the only way sometimes.” His words struck a chord with Nessa, leaving her speechess for a few moments. 

“I see,” Nessa’s smile slowly returned, “I never thought of it that way, thank you.”

Fausm smiled back, “You and your brother remind me of my youth, keep going down this righteous path, I have high hopes for you kids,” He walked past Nessa towards the inn, “Now if you don’t mind, it’s been a while since I had a drink.” 

Nessa giggled at Fausm’s easy change of tone and attitude, it really felt like she was seeing the true side of him despite only knowing him for so little time. She was about to follow him back to the inn when she noticed someone slowly weaving between alleys from the outskirts of towns. Nessa’s curiosity got the better of her as she intercepted the path and ran face to face with Eve.

“Ack!” The human girl jumped in shock from running into Nessa, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t notice you there.” She spoke quietly and refused to look Nessa in the eyes.

“It’s alright, did your team have any luck looking for that thief?” Nessa questioned coldly which forced Eve to turn her gaze even further away from Nessa.

“Not exactly. We’re still floundering about.” Eve laughed nervously, “Um, and uh, sorry about Rex, I know he didn’t exactly come off the best earlier today.”

Nessa tilted her head in confusion, “Come off the best? He was downright rude and demeaning. I don’t understand why a nice girl like you can stand him.” 

“He’s not usually like this,” Eve adjusted her quiver briefly which caught Nessa’s attention for some reason, “Rex has been struggling recently, and I can’t bring myself to try and speak out against him when he’s determined like this. I’m sorry. I should probably go.” Eve squeezed past Nessa and walked hurriedly off into town.

Nessa’s gaze was still fixed on the quiver on her back, something struck all too familiar about her arrows that she couldn’t quite pin yet. Thinking quickly, Nessa waved her hand up in a beckoning motion. A violet mist wrapped her palm and pulsed as she closed her fist. One of the arrows shuddered within the quiver and in an instant flung itself out to fall at Nessa’s feet.

Before Eve could notice the occurence, Nessa swiped the arrow and hid it within her satchel hurrying back to the inn. Nessa’s thoughts raced far beyond her comprehension. She knew she should be anxious and worried, but the reason behind it hadn’t yet been pieced together in her mind. 

Without a word to Mariah or Fausm, she rushed up the stairs to her room and opened the door slowly. Mair had seemingly fell asleep, leaving Nessa to quietly approach his bed and reach beneath the wooden frame. Her hand, out of her view, grasped onto the discarded arrow that was pulled out of Mair. With what seemed like minutes of hesitation and catching up with her lost breath, Nessa pulled Eve’s arrow out of her satchel and compared it to the one that struck Mair.

A metal tip, dark blue fletching, there was no longer a doubt in Nessa’s mind. The arrows were identical. The puzzle was completed, it was up to Nessa now to decide what to do with it.


	9. Calm Before The Storm

Nessa found herself unable to sleep, unbearably restless with the discovery she made still fresh in her mind. Possibilities of the truth danced in her racing mind. The worst and the best of scenarios balanced on a scale out of her reach but still in her sight. Was it Eve alone that worked with the sellswords, was it Rex that set them upon Nessa and her brother? No introspection could decide what was true, only seeking it out herself was an option.

  
Nessa tossed within the inn’s bed and looked over to her brother. He was completely still except for the occasional breaths that shifted his body. She knew it in her heart that in order to protect her brother and ensure a future for the both of them that she had to take a stand against whatever tried to stop them. With that decision alight in her mind, Nessa finally drifted off to sleep.  


Though morning came without issue, it still remained tense for Nessa. She decided to wait for her brother to prepare for the day before bringing the news to him. Outside of the inn, she stood on the doorstep patiently. During her time in waiting, Rex and his allies passed her vision. Nessa felt her heart sink just seeing them again. Despite the powerful anchor dragging her down, she paid close attention to where the trio were going as to hopefully follow them.

Half an hour passed before Mair left the inn and met with his sister outside. Nessa hesitated to speak at first, but after a deep breath she addressed her brother.  
“Mair, there’s something I need to tell you.” Nessa remained quick and to the point, standing straight while looking up at him.

“Huh? Am I adopted?” Mair walked past his sister, not yet picking up on the weight of Nessa’s tone. Nessa simply sighed in response before pulling out the two arrows she used for comparison.

“I found this identical arrow in Eve’s quiver,” Nessa informed, “I believe that she was somehow involved with the sellswords being hired against us.”

Mair stopped dead in his tracks and looked over the arrows with a grim look in his eyes, “Oh. Well you could’ve led with that. What are we gonna do about this, should we go back to the guild?”

“No, I know it may sound ridiculous, but we still have a mission to do here. We can’t just leave Rex and the others free though, we should confront them and figure out the truth.” Nessa responded and pointed over past the town, “I saw them leave over that direction earlier this morning, we should follow them.”

Mair nodded in agreement and followed his sister, they were both silent as they passed through the town until Mair spoke up a few minutes into their trek.  
“Hey sis, are you feeling alright? You’ve been quiet all day.” Mair walked ahead of his sister to catch her attention as he spoke.

“I’m alright,” Nessa forced out a smile but it quickly faded, “This is all just a little eye opening is all. I mean, I wouldn’t have figured other adventurers to have gone this low. That’s why I want to know their intentions.” Their conversation echoed through the tunnels past the edge of town, serving as the only sound in the lonely cavern.

“Well it’s sort of like we talked about yesterday. I doubt these jerks represent adventurers as a whole in this sense, and I especially doubt they’d go as far as this even.” Mair laughed as he instinctively reached toward his healed wound.

Nessa laughed with him and looked towards the ceiling of the tunnel at the passing mana crystals. The glowing lights, unwavering with time, shined upon her as she recalled Ilz and wondered how his search for the truth on the mana crystals was going. Her mind wandered to Hela, Nessa wondered if Hela was safe on her journey to the surface and what similar troubles she might’ve faced in her time. Nessa wondered how much corruption Hela saw with her own eyes, and she wondered how many people Hela killed. 

Those thoughts ran through her like a chill down her spine, but she eventually shook it off as she heard voices raising further down the tunnel. As Nessa and Mair approached, the voices were clearly that of Rex and his companions though the topic of their discussion was not yet audible.

They cautiously turned a corner into a clearing luminated by a grand spire of mana crystals hanging from the ceiling. The cavern floor was littered with boulders and patterns of uneven stone that made the ground rugged. Standing on the opposite end of the open cavern on higher ground, Rex and Kross stood over a bound human who fit the description of the thief.

“It’s about time you showed up, Nessie!” Rex called out, his cocky voice echoed off the cavern walls to reach the siblings, “Kind of rude to show up uninvited, had I not set Eve to scout behind us I probably wouldn’t have noticed.” Nessa took a deep breath to calm herself down. The thief was captured at the very least which eased her a bit, even if it was Rex that completed the mission. 

“Rex, I believe you know why we followed you here. Did you work with the sellswords to attack us? You realize the guild won’t accept this right?” Nessa scolded as she revealed the identical arrows as evidence for her claims.

Kross looked over at his ally awaiting his response, to which Rex only shrugged and handed the binds of the thief off to him. Rex stepped forward to the edge of the elevated ground proudly, “You’re still so naive about all of this aren’t you Nessie,” Rex chuckled as he set his copper longsword over his shoulder, “You really think the guild will care about your sob story that we cheated you out of the mission or supposedly set sellswords on to you? In fact, I think the guild will take our word for better if we finish the mission and have the lord of this town backing us up, don’t you think?”

Nessa’s brow furrowed as she grew aggravated, “What are you going on about?” Her hand instinctively hovered towards her wand as she grew unsettled by Rex’s confidence.

“Well this quest isn’t all that rewarding, but I’m sure the guild will look fondly on us if we not only finished the mission for you, but also ended up rescuing you from certain death. That was the plan anyway, the sellswords were to capture you and hand you back over to us to fulfill that narrative for the town and eventually the guild. Unfortunately now, it looks like the dirty work is on our hands now.” Rex motioned away to a tunnel entrance about a story’s height above the ground. 

Out from the cover of the tunnel, Eve revealed herself with an arrow knocked onto her bow. She peeked out from the higher ground, nearly hanging off the edge to let loose the arrow at the siblings. They leapt back in surprise but the arrow hit the ground in front of them as a warning. Eve slunk back into cover without a word, refusing to meet the gazes of the siblings. Nessa looked down at the arrow and noticed it radiated a green barrier similar to the ones used in the trials.

“There’s no way you’re serious about this!” Mair ripped his pike from its sling on his back and stared down Rex with fire in his eyes, “What did we do to piss you off so bad that you’d plan all this out just to screw us over?” Mair growled as he stomped towards the demiserpus.

Rex’s smirk faded from his face as he shifted to a solemn expression, “It isn’t anything personal like you may think. My team has run into issues in the past, and as a result the guild is hesitant to send us on missions and quests of our own. Soon enough, our team will be expelled from the guild unless we can prove our worth. But how are we to prove our worth if we’re not given a chance anymore?” Rex swung his sword out at the air in anger and gripped the hilt with a trembling grasp, “I’m willing to take whatever path necessary to not be left behind. Even if it means using those around me as stepping stones!” He motioned out to Eve’s hiding spot again. Despite not revealing herself, Eve loosed an arrow out from cover that shot towards Rex. The arrow whizzed towards the ground, yet in a cloud of dust it curved back up and lunged out towards the siblings.

Mair braced himself for the speeding curve shot by keeping his buckler up at the ready. The arrow slammed itself into his shield, the magical barrier around the arrow shattered as the full force of the shot converted into pure blunt impact. Mair stumbled back and looked to Eve’s cover in confusion. She never revealed herself to fire the shot, and yet it curved perfectly towards Mair.

“How the hell did her arrow do that?” Mair questioned as he kept his buckler up awaiting another shot. Nessa caught up with her brother and inspected the arrow. Despite the strange characteristics of the shot, she couldn’t find any magical influence on the arrow past the now broken barrier.

“Come on, let’s get behind cover before she fires again.” Nessa ordered as she guided her brother over to a spire jetting out of the ground. Her attention turned to Eve’s cover as she faintly heard the firing of another arrow. Just like before, the arrow shot from out of view and curved itself to aim at her brother.

Nessa stopped in her tracks and spread her arms apart as a violet barrier unfurled in front of her, with a movement of her wand she guided the barrier to shield her brother as he leapt behind cover. Her actions proved fruitless though as the arrow curved out of its path once again to dodge the barrier and aim for Nessa instead. She tried to protect herself with a short burst of abjuration magic but the arrow hit her dead on, impacting her with the barrier and knocking her to the ground.

“Nessa! Are you alright?” Mair called out from behind cover, hesitating briefly on whether to rush out into the open.

“As I thought,” Rex remarked joyfully, “You’re not going to get far in the guild if you can’t manage to fight back. I’ll give you a chance to give up if you’re worried about really getting hurt.”   


Nessa pulled herself back on her feet and gripped her wand tight, “I’m far from giving up,” A burning determination flared in Nessa’s dark eyes as she stared down Rex, “If I lose to you here, there’s no doubt in my mind that my brother and I would end up in your same position. I want to help you, but what you’re doing will only continue a cycle of jealousy and hate.” A violet flare shined at Nessa’s wand as she prepared herself out in the open cavern, “But if I have no choice but to continue your game, then I’ll play it.”

Rex scoffed and motioned to Eve once again. Another arrow fired from her spot in hiding and began to curve towards Nessa. In response, Nessa spun her wand in a conducting dance, a trio of mana bolts flung from her shining wand directly towards Rex, leaving Nessa open to the incoming arrow.

Rex’s expression shifted, the sudden realization struck him as he was forced to defend himself. With a swift flurry of strikes from his sword, he managed to cut the bolts out of the air. Rex was forced back off his ground and scowled in annoyance as he was figured out.  Nessa stood proudly as the curving arrow ceased its path and pathetically tumbled to the ground just as Rex was forced to defend himself.

“I had a feeling there was some interference when I found there were no further enchantments on these arrows,” Nessa spun one of Eve’s arrows in between her fingers with a confident smile on her face, “Eve naturally had no way of casting while firing, and Kross couldn’t have been casting with his hands full keeping the thief in binds. All that left was you, using the motion you made to alert your ally as a cover for the movements needed to guide the arrows magically.”

Rex stood up from his defensive stance and smiled, revealing his snakelike fangs, “Clever, but it won’t matter much longer,” Rex motioned to Kross, who handed over the binds of the thief back over to Rex as Kross pulled his axe from off his back and stood in front of his leader, “Kross, Eve, take care of them now and show them how outclassed they are!”

With his orders given out, Kross dashed out to meet the siblings out in the middle of the cavern floor while Eve stepped out from cover and began to aim down at her targets.  
“I’ll take care of Kross,” Mair told Nessa and held his ground for the serpus’ approach.

Nessa nodded in agreement as she broke away from her brother towards Eve. The human archer noticed Nessa’s approach and aimed her shot down at the mage. Arrows loosed from her bow, one after another, each one was halted in their tracks as Nessa kept a barrier up on herself.

Eve panicked as Nessa got closer and closer to her position. With a scan of the battlefield, she saw Mair distracted with his duel with Kross. Eve shifted her targeting, aiming another arrow at Mair with hope to catch him off guard. The arrow was fired with intent to soar right past Nessa.

Nessa took notice of Eve’s new target and flipped through her tome, hoping to find a solution to guard her brother from afar. The time frame Nessa was given was slim, her options thinned as the arrow approached. In a sudden reaction, Nessa lunged out towards the arrow, a violet and red mist pulsed out from her wrist and wrapped the arrow in a magical fog, slowing it down and dragging it to a halt in the air. Nessa held the arrow aloft, keeping it steady despite the unbearable pain in her wrist. With a sudden twist of her body, she launched the magically enhanced arrow back in Eve’s direction, forcing her back into cover.

With an opportunity before her, Nessa caught up to Eve’s position. Toiling through the pages of her tome, Nessa leapt to the elevated entrance of the tunnel that Eve ducked back into. A magical sheen radiated off Nessa, aiding her ability to scale and jump off the rugged walls to ascend quickly. She reached the top and found herself face to face with Eve, who knocked her last arrow and held it pointing to the floor while backing away slowly.

“You said yesterday that you didn’t agree with everything Rex did,” Nessa held her wand back in preparation, but otherwise tried to calm down her opponent, “Do you still now think everything he’s doing is alright? You can still back out of this.”

Eve took a deep breath and looked Nessa in the eyes, “I’m sorry, I really don’t want to hurt you or your brother.” Eve hoisted up her bow and aimed at Nessa, “But I have to support my friends. I know this is wrong, I know it. Despite all my doubts, I owe too much to Rex to let him down here.”

Nessa shook her head and guided her wand near her waist, “I can clearly see there’s a lot I don’t know about you and Rex, but that won’t excuse anything.”

Nessa’s wrist and wand flashed a crimson red light as she began to swing her wand at Eve like a blade. Eve reacted as best she could to let loose the arrow she had prepared. A violet and scarlet slash carved through the air as Eve’s arrow sped out from the bow. The magical slash cleaved the incoming arrow in two and immediately ripped Eve’s bow out of her grasp, slamming it in pieces against the tunnel walls.

Eve backed away with her hands raised in surrender, while Nessa was brought to her knees. She clutched at her wrist as she felt blood pounding at her arm like a second heart underneath the skin. Nessa desperately tried to hold a brave composure in front of her enemy as she stood back up and addressed Eve, “Return to your friend or leave, just don’t interfere in this fight anymore.” Nessa said briefly before looking out the tunnel for her brother.

  
  
Mair stood awaiting Kross’ eventual approach while Nessa left to deal with Eve. Behind the golden eyes of his opponent, Mair saw the same desire that he felt within himself. The fuel for every warrior’s heart is the desire to overcome the challenges and struggles they face. Kross and Mair saw each other as a wall they must overcome, to make up for their draw back in the trials.

“This won’t be a repeat of our last battle,” Kross spoke up as he heaved his axe for the impending combat, the shimmer of the green magical barrier around Kross shined in the light of the mana crystal above them “I won’t hold back.”

“Good,” Mair held his pike with its blade pointed directly at his opponent, “At least this time you won’t have an excuse.” Mair made the first move with a lunge that landed his pike at Kross’ open chest. Kross stood his ground, making no movement to defend himself, he dug his heels as Mair’s strike impacted his abdomen. The barrier converted the strike into blunt force, somewhat protecting Kross as he unleashed a prepared counterattack.

The serpus raised his axe up and batted Mair away with a cleaving motion that knocked Mair to the ground. The barrier around the axe shielded Mair from the blade, yet he was still struggling even from just the first strike. Mair stood back up regardless, still gripping onto his weapon with ferocity to fight on.

Mair made another lunge, and another, and another. Kross took each blow and knocked Mair away with a counterattack each and every time. Despite all of it, Mair picked himself up without  fail.

“You keep going for the same attack, if you don’t take this fight seriously you’ll only make a fool of yourself.” Kross growled as Mair readied himself to lunge at Kross once again.  Mair did not respond and instead took advantage of Kross’ guard being let down to stab his pike in the same spot once more. Kross took the blow again, growing furious at Mair’s strategy. In a show of strength, Kross swung his axe down at Mair just as the stab was delivered. Kross stumbled back from the crushing blow to his weakened chest, breathing heavily as the fight approached its conclusion. Mair was knocked clean onto his face after the devastating strike to his shoulder.

Kross stepped over to stand over Mair’s prone body as the night elf warrior kept his grip on his pike firm even while he struggled to lift himself up. Kross raised his axe up, preparing to finish the fight by knocking out his opponent.

“Kross!” Rex called out and halted his ally from finishing the fight, “Disengage immediately, that’s an order!” Rex yelled out in a tone different from what the siblings had yet to hear from him.

Kross looked back, his axe still raised as he seemingly questioned his leader without spoken words.

“Your barrier’s been shattered at the chest, so disengage. Now!” Rex demanded again which prompted Kross to look down at his chest. The magical barrier was certainly broken at his chest and abdomen. Kross then looked down to Mair, who still held his pike pointed at Kross, ready to strike at him again if he didn’t back away.

“You’re smarter than you look.” Kross said quietly as he turned his back to Mair and walked away while clutching at his chest.

Rex took a look around at the battlefield, both of his teammates were retreating back to him with worry painted across their faces. Mair picked himself off the ground and set his sights on Rex, while Nessa jumped down from the elevated tunnel and held her wand in preparation to engage once again.

“I was prepared for it to have to come to this,” Rex said under his breath with a faint chuckle. He suddenly lashed out, knocking the hilt of his blade across the bound thief’s head, knocking him to the ground unconscious, “In a way I almost expected it.” Rex leapt to ground level, directly across from Mair. Rex’s familiar smirk was painted plainly on his face all while his golden snake eyes glared down his prey with a storm brewing within them.  
  
“It’s a shame. I didn’t want to have to go this far.”


	10. Blood and Lightning

The thin air of the cavern tensed as Rex stood to be the last obstacle between the elven siblings and their mission. The demiserpus’ expression easily flipped away from his playful demeanor as he readied himself for the coming assault. Despite his change of expression, the confidence he exuded remained ever so apparent in his body language. The tides were turned against him, yet his resolve never wavered in the face of the challenge before him. While Kross dragged the knocked out thief off the battlefield, Rex waited patiently.

Nessa instinctively paused as she noticed something off with the situation, whereas Mair held no hesitation in his approach. His pace quickened as he drew closer on his target, ignoring the pain across his whole body and his severe loss of breath. Mair saw his opening and acted on it as soon as he could, before Rex could hope to successfully defend himself. His silver pike pierced through the air as it closed in on the demiserpus.

The scene slowed in Mair’s head as he watched Rex raise his copper blade weakly to defend himself. His venomous eyes seemed to pose more of a threat than the pathetic blade and stance Rex had held. Mair saw the result in his head clearly, there was no doubt in his mind that he would crush his opponent’s guard. 

But Mair was mistaken.

Confusion set in Mair’s mind as his pike whiffed far past his target. The momentum of his failed lunge shot him far out of his preferred range and landed him directly at Rex’s side. Questions raced through Mair’s mind, his aim was thrown off so much and Rex had never even parried his attack. No answers to his questions had crossed his mind by the time Rex countered with a swift knee to Mair’s gut.

“Is that all you can manage?” Rex remarked with his usual smug attitude as Mair dropped to his knees, clutching at his abdomen and leaving his weapon at Rex’s feet, “I expected some level of resistance, but this is just pathetic.” He raised his sword up as a blinding flash of white light enveloped the blade for only a moment.

“Mair!” Nessa called out with a shriek of fear and worry for her brother as she ran forward to intercept in any way possible. But there was no room for intervention as Rex’s judgement was soundly delivered. The flat side of Rex’s bright blade slammed against his downed target. The moment of impact delivered a thunderous shock wave as the light left the blade as soon as it came. The thunder wave hit Mair point blank at his shoulder, ripping the leather armor pad sewn into his uniform to shreds as he was hurled halfway to the cavern wall.

Mair remained collapsed on the cold ground as Nessa rushed to his form, “Mair, get up! Are you alright?” She lifted his head and shoulders up and peered at his now revealed and bruised left arm. Her brother coughed a bit before adjusting to the wave of pain he felt. “Don’t move too much, I’ll heal you, just please don’t hurt yourself.” Nessa panicked as she fumbled for her wand and mustered whatever she could to start the consumptive healing spells she knew.

“D-Don’t.” Mair trembled over his words through his coarse and broken voice, “You’d waste too much energy trying to help me up. I’ll be fine.” Mair turned his attention over to Rex, who stood proud with the hilt of his copper sword twirled effortlessly between his fingers like some sort of trick, “I don’t want to say it but there’s nothing I can do. He had some way of throwing off my attack without any effort.” Mair looked up at his sister with a confident and pure smile, “I believe you can do this, if there’s anyone that can beat him, it’s you sis.” 

Nessa’s throat tightened and her words were choked behind walls of held back tears. She wrapped her brother in a hug and mouthed out an apology behind his back. She struggled to find the strength to do so, but she ended up safely sitting him up against the cavern wall to recover.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on fighting me alone. I’ve seen your sorry excuse for casting back at the trials, and I know full well you don’t stand a chance,” Rex laughed off his insults as he lodged his blade in the loose dirt beneath him, “C’mon Nessie, you can’t actually believe your petty flukes can stand up to a real mage,” He raised his arms up in a shrug as sparks ran up his arms to the tips of his fingers.

Nessa stepped away from her brother to approach Rex, she didn’t have anything to say to him as she slipped her wand out of her sleeve and tightened her grip on it. A glimmer of crimson and violet energy wrapped around her hand as Nessa raised the wand up in a swiping motion. A flurry of thin magical needles darted out of the afterimage of her movements. Rex ripped his blade out of the ground in response, the sparks on his hands traveled up the conductive metal of his blade, heightening the strength of the electrical energy traveling through his body. With his fangs bared, Rex slashed into the air, unleashing a bolt of lightning out from his sword that streaked through the air to consume the magical darts.

All in one moment, the bolt faded out of the air with Nessa’s magic having been completely nullified from its might. Nessa took a deep breath to ignore the wracking pain of her casting arm, “I don’t understand your obsession with us Rex,” Nessa spoke up from her voluntary silence, “You’re clearly skilled enough that you can help those in need. Yet you’re here trying to drag down others to benefit yourself. You must have some personal vendetta against me, don’t you?”

The sparks dimmed down over Rex’s sword as he lowered his guard, “I guess a personal vendetta is what you could call it. There is a reason why I decided you were the prime target for this little rivalry,” Rex’s electric aura strengthened as he grew more heated, “The moment I witnessed your trials, the trials you should have failed just like I had several times over, I grew furious at the director’s decision. Then I found out you were invited by Krisofft, and I knew exactly what was going on. You and your brother were only accepted out of pity! You never truly belonged as an adventurer, and your presence as one stands as an insult to all those who've gone through turmoil just to have a place within the guild.”

Nessa’s grip trembled as Rex explained himself, “Enough!” She interrupted him, choking back tears. Nessa took his words to heart, as it was much what she believed herself, a gloom set over her, but it was quickly dispersed as she looked to Rex with fire in her eyes, “You may be right. Maybe I’m not all made out to be an adventurer. I’m not as talented as you or many others in my position,” Nessa turned over to her brother briefly, “Despite all of this, I’ve been given this chance to prove my worth. I’m going to use this opportunity to prove you and everyone who doubts me wrong!”

“You’re persistent, if anything,” Rex shook his head in disappointment as his lightning magic traveled back into his copper blade, “We’ll see how long that persistence lasts!” Rex’s smirk was lit up by the linking chains of lightning that danced across his sword. He waved it before him as it acted like a conductor to the electricity under his control. With the target set, the lightning bolts shot out towards Nessa with unerring accuracy.

Nessa responded as quickly as she could to put up a barrier between herself and the incoming lightning. Her wand twirled in front of her to bring forth a spherical shield that enveloped her. The bolt was halted in its tracks as it crashed against Nessa’s barrier. The barrier cracked under the force of the elemental magic, but managed to stay strong.

Rex prepared another bolt to break through the shield while Nessa was left panicking through her tome for an answer to her conundrum. With a moment of hesitation, she found herself flipping to pages at a frantic pace and ripping out pages seemingly at random. By the time Rex’s next attack was unleashed, Nessa held her wand out ready for it to hit her shield.

The consuming bolt of lightning darted towards her, her wrist twisted as a violet fog wrapped her arm and encompassed the incoming lightning. Nessa put all her effort into steering the aim of the bolt with her spell, but her efforts were met with minimal impact as the lightning bolt struck at her shield, leaving it at a near breaking point. The barrier flickered in and out of reality as Nessa’s breath became heavy.

“You’re running low on mana already, huh?” Rex remarked as he let sparks dance across his body to show off, “I didn’t think you could be any worse than my expectations.” He laughed while preparing one final bolt to shatter Nessa’s defenses. Rex swung his blade once more, letting loose the lightning bolt that careened towards Nessa. One final gambit was left in Nessa’s grasp as the crimson light returned to her hand and wrist. With a violent whipping of her wand, a scarlet energy wrapped around the near formless lightning to steer it out of its directed path.

Nessa’s efforts were narrowly rewarded as the main bolt was thrown off its trajectory to crash into the dirt, throwing up a cloud of dust that enveloped the battlefield. Despite her success, much of the lightning still crashed into her shield enough to break through and strike at her. The remainder of the bolt struck at her shoulder while the dust cloud washed over Nessa all in one moment.

Rex was left alone as he lost sight of his target amongst the cloud of dirt and dust, he scoffed in annoyance and scanned for movements from Nessa obscured by the debris, “Consider me mildly impressed, you were able to deflect the majority of my lightning. But with what did hit you, there’s no way you got far.” Rex laughed to himself as he aimed his sword at the dust cloud with the storm brewing within it again. 

As the dust cloud slowly parted, Rex could see a faint silhouette of Nessa with what seemed to be her tome on her feet, “It’s time we end this!” Rex declared his victory as a thunderous bolt shot out from his blade dead set on Nessa’s position. The dust cloud parted as the air was ripped apart by Rex’s elemental magic, revealing the truth to him at the last second.

The silhouette was nothing more than a simple illusion spell of the basic humanoid shape. The lightning bolt shot through it as it faded into expended mana that scattered with the dust. Rex’s thoughts raced in his head as he saw Nessa’s tome still remained on the ground despite the illusion having been dispelled.

“Behind you, Rex!” Eve called out to him, snapping him out of his confusion to whip around to find Nessa with her wand in one hand and two arrows in the other. Her shoulder was scarred from the impact of the lightning and her upper sleeve was left burnt and destroyed.

Nessa’s glare dug into Rex’s soul as she wasted no time in making her next move. Her magic wrapped the arrows in her hand as they launched from her grasp. The arrows, enveloped in crimson and violet light, soared out towards Rex, who held his ground with his blade prepared at his side. With a gentle movement of his copper blade, Rex dimmed his electrical magic to a magnetic force as to turn the arrows up into the air. 

The arrows did as Rex planned, fighting through Nessa’s magic to deflect into the air above Rex as they flung themselves towards the ceiling of the cavern. Yet all in one moment, the tides of the battle turned.

A trio of Nessa’s magical bolts struck Rex's sword hand and wrist with no warning to him. Rex cursed at himself as he realized the arrows were only meant to be distractions from Nessa’s actual attack. The bolts burnt his hand and stung him with the unbearable discomfort of unwanted mana flowing under his skin. His grip on his weapon was easily lost as the light weapon flung out of his hand and landed several meters behind him.

Rex barely held off from staggering off his ground as he held his hands out to Nessa. Lightning formed at his fingers as a wild fury of sparks and bolts was let loose in Nessa’s direction. Nessa fumbled for one of the torn pages of her tome. With the right page in hand, her wand and hand became wrapped in a swirling scarlet wind. She rushed forward, dodging the now inaccurate electricity as the bolts darted aimlessly without Rex’s sword to conduct them effectively.

Nessa closed the distance between herself and Rex, weaving between his electricity to slash the swirling winds of her wand against him like a rapier. Rex was pushed to the defensive, utilizing acrobatic maneuvers and using the magic of his electrical aura to deflect the cutting winds while he tried to back himself over to his sword.

Rex’s plan was made all too clear to Nessa. With a spin of her wrist, she whipped her wand to the ground. The wind spell curved behind Rex and slashed at the back of his leg as he backed directly into the attack. Rex stumbled off balance momentarily before responding with a thunderous burst from his hands that knocked Nessa away momentarily. His thoughts raced a mile a minute as he considered his options. He ran a hand across his calf and looked at the blood that smeared across it. Rex knew he couldn’t rush over to his sword in this state, Nessa would just catch up to him easily.

Ideas and strategies swirled through his head as he decided on his plan of action just before Nessa got back up on her feet. Rex spread his arms wide and reached out to the air around him. His hands trembled and radiated faint sparks as soon after his deflected arrows flung into each of his hands. Rex smirked with glee as his electricity flowed into the metal tips of the arrows while he wielded them like twin daggers.

The battle was put on even footing with Rex pushing further into the offensive with his sparking arrows clashing against the sharp winds surrounding Nessa’s wand. They danced with threat of harm surrounding every one of their swift and elegant movements. Though Nessa might not have had the martial prowess of her opponent, Rex’s injury more than made up for her inexperience in close combat.

Soon enough, Rex gained the upper hand with a sudden kick to her casting arm that knocked Nessa’s wand out of her hand, forcing her to recoil and ease the pain of her aching wrist. Rex backed away and held the two arrows pointed out towards his sword. The arrows trembled with magnetic tension as the blade slowly shifted off the ground. Nessa recovered from the pain as quickly as she could to reach out toward her disarmed wand with one hand while the other pulled out a sheet of her tome out from beneath her collar. The wand was wrapped in a violet and crimson fog and leapt back to Nessa’s grasp as quickly as it was disarmed.

While Nessa rearmed herself, Rex had regained his sword as it flung itself back into his grasp. He dropped the arrows and prepared to engage with his weapon in hand. Rex rushed out towards Nessa with his sword radiating with electricity once more. Nessa clenched the page of her tome in her fist as she acted on her plan. As Rex swung his sparking sword down at Nessa, she raised her wand in defense, the slashing winds barely held back the pure force that Rex put into his swing. Eventually, her wand was shattered into pieces as Rex’s sword cleaved through and planted itself into the ground in front of them. 

Nessa acted as quickly as she could, tracing her fingers over the symbols on the crumbled tome sheet before grasping her hand directly over Rex’s copper blade. She felt the blade cut into her hand and blood leaving her palm. Without any more hesitation and to Rex’s confusion, Nessa casted the spell from her tome as a pink light continuously washed over Rex’s sword.

With a shove from Rex, Nessa was pushed away from her grasp as he drew his blade out of the ground to inspect the spell affecting his sword. The truth dawned on him all too late as he tried to toss the blade away, only for it to break apart and burst into a mana induced explosive burst.

Nessa had stumbled back from Rex’s shove and watched as her spell succeeded, with a dark red cloud of expended mana left from the violent explosion. Nessa panicked to grab more of her tome’s sheets while keeping an eye on Rex. Her vision was only slightly obscured as she saw him stumbling back with what remained of his sword’s hilt still tight in his grasp. His serpent eyes glared out at Nessa with bloodlust as he wasted no time in repaying the damage done to him.

Rex whipped the broken hilt over his head with lightning drawing further and further into it until it was left to its absolute limit. He threw the charged projectile at alarming speeds directly towards Nessa, who had little time to react to Rex’s impromptu attack. Time seemed to slow around Nessa as she crossed her arms to defend herself, calling forth whatever magical barrier she could muster. Despite her efforts, the barrier she casted was easily shattered by the force of Rex’s discarded and charged hilt as it caved in directly towards Nessa.

The hilt shattered onto the barrier, yet the damage had already been done. Nessa’s barrier shot back into her like shards of glass, carving into her arms as she held them back from piercing her body. The force of the attack sent her skidding back. She was left breathless with blood pouring from the wounds decorating her arms. Nessa struggled to remain standing, but she stood tall and proud of her resilience regardless.

“I can’t lose now,” Rex muttered under his breath as he wiped away some blood from his face, “I can’t lose now that I’ve crawled my way to this point in my life. Everything I’ve fought and bled for, it all resides on my actions here and now,” He growled with a ferocious determination to keep fighting in spite of his body being littered in cuts and burns, “I can’t return to nothing. I refuse to let this all go!” Rex concluded by clasping his hands together and slowly tearing them away from each other. Static sparks transferred between his two hands as he seemed to fight himself in just trying to pull his hands apart. Soon, an orb of electrical magic formed in the space between his hands, slowly charging from Rex’s struggles.

Nessa silently observed as Rex prepared his final gambit while she was left with nothing. Her wand was destroyed and the remnants of her torn tome pages were scattered in scorched ash and memory, all while blood flowing from her arms dripped slowly at her feet.

“I agree with you,” Nessa croaked out in response, leaving Rex with a grimace painted across his gritted fangs, “I can’t go back to the life I lived before either. There’s nothing left for me there. I wouldn’t wish that fate upon anyone, to have to step back from their dreams.”

“Shut up!” Rex interrupted in disgust, “Don’t you dare pretend to know the hell I’ve gone through!” The spell Rex was preparing reached its boiling point as he aimed it out towards Nessa, “I’m ending this here and now. Nessa, if you in any way value your life, then surrender!” 

Nessa simply remained silent and waited for Rex to unleash his attack. He hesitated as the massive orb of lightning trembled within his grasp, but in only a matter of time, Rex unleashed the last of his magic in one final bolt. The lightning took a form like a cannonball as it was launched out towards Nessa without any mercy. 

Nessa was left with no options before her. Despite the incoming attack, all she could think of was the feeling in her arms. She expected pain unlike anything before, and yet all that remained was relief. The aching pain that terrorized Nessa’s casting arm was gone as blood ran down like a scarlet waterfall down her mauve skin. In her darkest moments, Nessa knew it wasn’t her mind that carried her out of danger, but her body acting on its own. It was all she could rely on at this moment, so Nessa held her arms out and braced for the impact of Rex’s attack.

The lightning approached with a blinding light that left Nessa alone in her own world for a moment, surrounded by nothing but endless white and the blood that fell from her. Nessa’s eyes shut as she called forth whatever she could from the deepest points of her body and soul to defend herself. A crimson aura surrounded her like a devastating blaze, fueled by her spilled blood like oil fed to bouts of hellfire. Nessa’s outstretched arms harnessed the full extent of her inner strength, taking the full impact of Rex’s lightning as it was held back from completely washing over Nessa.

Nessa held the lightning in place, even as it traveled through her in short bursts, threatening to electrocute her if not for the aura surrounding her that stopped much of the damage from reaching her body. Though she was not spared from the pain of the lightning coursing under her skin and through her veins as she struggled to hold the lightning back in time for the attack to be nullified. Her body nearly buckled under the searing pain she felt, in only a matter of time she knew she would let go and let the lightning consume her. 

She had prepared to let her body take over for her, yet deep down Nessa knew it wouldn’t be enough. Her mind kicked back into action as she recalled what she had to do. Memories of her brother flashed through Nessa’s mind as she gave everything she had not just to defend herself but to forge a future for him that she knew he deserved. Nessa’s eyes broke open with blinding fury as she called forth everything she had to heave the orb of lightning over her head, pouring her crimson aura with the last of her violet magic into the lightning above her.

The scene slowly played back onto Nessa’s eyes as she was seemingly freed from the blinding purgatory she was trapped in. She looked out to Rex, who stood with a vacant expression of disbelief painted plainly across his face. With the blood coating her arms granting her strength, Nessa dragged the lightning back down and deflected the attack back at Rex with everything she had.

The lightning orb that Rex had launched out at Nessa was now sent flying back to him, breaking him out of the trance of disbelief he was in. A confident smirk danced its way across his fanged smile as he held his hands out in preparation. He knew that he could simply control his own lightning to whatever desire he held without going through the ordeal Nessa had put herself through. Rex dropped his hands down in an attempt to ground the orb of lightning to nullify it completely, yet his plan backfired as he realized the true intent of Nessa’s deflection.

The lightning that Rex forced into the ground was but a layer surrounding the true attack that was hidden beneath the surface. Beneath the lightning was the remainder of Nessa’s magic and energy that she poured within the orb, masking it as a mere deflection. Rex was left panicked as he formed a barrier over himself as a last ditch defense before the attack crashed into him.

The impact was immediately met with a deafening burst of mana that washed over the entire cavern clearing and even radiated into the mana crystals above. By the time the dust and debris cleared, Rex was left on his knees with the shattered remnants of a barrier wrapped around him. Nessa’s heart was left nearly beating out of her chest as she slowly limped her way over to Rex with an unreadable gaze in her eyes and a tinge of mana swirling around her bloody hand.

“Rex!” Eve called out in fear as both her and Kross tried to intervene.

“Don’t you dare!” Rex lashed out even from his downed position, “Both of you! Get out of here, leave the thief and head back to the guild!” He concluded and looked to Nessa who was still approaching him with magic prepared in her casting hand.

Kross hesitantly held back Eve from rushing out to Rex’s side. A pained expression was clear on his scaled face as he watched Nessa stand over Rex.

“What are you waiting for, Nessie?” Rex growled under his breath, “If you’re gonna finish it, then go right ahead.” He said with a half-hearted bloody smirk, unwavering even as Nessa raised her hand in line with Rex’s face, magic still flowing through her hand and wrist. Rex closed his eyes and prepared for death.

All he was met with was a relieving warm pulse through his body. Rex hesitated to open his eyes. He eventually did and found that Nessa brought her hand back to her side right after healing him.

“What?” He managed to cough up as he dragged himself back to his feet, stumbling like a drunkard, “What’s wrong with you!?”

“I told you already,” Nessa spoke aloud while she walked over to her brother in the corner of the clearing, “I had no plans to continue a cycle of hate and jealousy, and that I sympathized with your desire not to fail those around you,” She spoke without looking at Rex and instead healed her brother and helped him up to his feet, “Don’t interpret this as forgiveness, because I certainly don’t forgive you for how you treated me or my brother. But I know that you did all of this not for yourself, but to keep moving forward with your friends there with you.”

As Nessa spoke, Rex felt a hand on his shoulder as Kross stepped to his side. Kross helped Rex up from his crooked posture while Eve stood behind the both of them with a smile on her face.

“I trust if you bring the thief over back to Viiest, we can all take the credit for this mission. That way, no one gets left behind,” Nessa looked back with a smile on her face.

“We can agree with that, Nessa.” Kross responded for his leader, who was left speechless with his eyes drawn to the ground.

“Good, see you there.” Nessa and Mair both walked side by side out of the clearing towards Viiest.

As their footsteps slowly echoed out of earshot, Rex’s team was left silent with each other until Rex finally spoke up, “You heard her, grab the thief and let’s move out.” Both Kross and Eve complied and went to pick up the unconscious thief, leaving Rex alone at the center for the clearing for a moment. Rex remained silent as he sorted through thoughts in his own head. He pulled his Hidden Star pin off his shoulder and stared down the badge. Rex flashed a genuine smile before putting it back into place with pride.


	11. Forbidden Affinity

Mana crystals dimmed into a quiet dusk as the slow bustle of Viiest crawled to stillness. The lanterns and candles within each residence dimmed as the citizens of the small town prepared for a night of rest. Though light still poured out from the edge of the underground village, The River Dragon Inn still remained a modest beacon to all those without a bed to return to.

Within the walls of the welcoming tavern, the innkeeper Mariah made her way down the stairs, careful as to make little noise for the peace of her guests. As she reached the main room downstairs, Mariah wiped away at her brow with her holy symbol in hand. She took a deep breath and sighed when the front entrance opened up to Fausm stepping into the inn.   


“Those two recovering alright?” The reptir inquired as he took a seat at one of the tables in the inn.   


“They should be all fixed up after a night’s rest for the healing to do its work. I’m worried about that Nessa girl though, the wounds at her arms aren’t closing up properly,” Mariah looked up at the ceiling with a puzzled gaze, “I bandaged her up and stayed the bleeding but that’s all I could get at with what I can muster.”   


“Sounds like they’ll be fine, probably not the worse they’ve been through,” Fausm grumbled as he fished through his pockets, “By the way, that thief they caught just coughed up all his stolen goods.” Fausm pulled out an old and rusted Hidden Star emblem from and tossed it over to Mariah, who narrowly caught it before it hit the floor.   


“Oh thank the gods, why would that thief want to take this alone and scram?” She held it with her calloused yet delicate touch.   


“The lord’s still piecing that together. Turns out the thief may not even be around these parts, probably a runaway from Zevah.” Fausm leaned back in the creaking wooden chair and relaxed.   


“I pray he ain’t no rebel. Poor soul, I would’ve helped the boy out if he just held a hand out in need,” Mariah walked over to the bar and set her old emblem down on the countertop for a moment, “Fausm? Where’s your emblem? That was stolen too wasn’t it?”   


The reptir perked up for a moment before falling back into a relaxed state, “Oh yeah, I just left it back at the town hall. Never was the nostalgic type,” Silence followed his response, prompting Fausm to look back and see Mariah wearing a downtrodden expression, “What? We’re not having this conversation again, are we?”   


“You’re right, we ain’t having this conversation again, this is the last time we’re having this conversation,” Mariah walked over to Fausm and stood looking over him while he was seated, “Fausm, I can see it in your eyes how much it's killing you to stay holed up in this town. You wanna return to adventuring, but you’re holding yourself back for no reason.”   


“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I’m perfectly fine with mercenary work. Besides, I made it clear that I’m not gonna leave you alone here. So would you drop it already?” Fausm rebutted without looking up at Mariah when he felt her hands grasp his own. He froze up as he felt the familiar haunting feeling. The warm feeling of her flesh, conflicting with the cold metal of her prosthetic hand.   


“Fausm, I’m done keeping you here with me. What happened wasn’t your fault, I’ve always said that time and time again. My time in that spotlight might be over, but yours ain’t. So please, if you wanna make anything up to me, how about you listen to me.”  
Fausm remained silent, his scales shifted with his subtle movements as he waited for Mariah to continue.  


“Please hun, help those apprentices out. You and I both can see they need some guidance. I’ll be just fine here, as long as you promise to visit between missions. Oh, and say hello to the guildmaster for me.” Mariah concluded with a radiant smile on her face.   


“You really are persistent, but if this is what you want then I’m not in any place to argue,” Fausm stood up from his seat and wandered over to the front door, “Suppose I should give everyone a parting farewell, huh?”   


“That’d be for the best hun.” Mariah beamed as he exited the inn.   
  


As the early morning came around, daily life resumed for the citizens of Viiest. News of the shadow looming over their little town vanishing filled the townsfolk with a new vigor and hope to carry on. While life returned to normalcy, Nessa and Mair gathered at the edge of Viiest, packing what little supplies they brought into a carriage for their departure back to the guild.   


“You’ve gotten all the things from the inn, right Mair?” Nessa inquired with a tired groan in her voice, her arms still bandaged up below the sleeves of her uniform, “I don’t want to have to make a second trip.”   


“Yeah I got everything,” Mair answered briefly as he assisted in the packing of the carriage, his attention was drawn away as he heard a slow and familiar set of footsteps approaching the both of them. He turned to face the intrusion to find Fausm slowly making his way over.   


“Don’t tell me you were planning on leaving without a goodbye, were ya?” Fausm laughed heartily with a genuine grin arced across his scaled face.   


“Mr. Fausm!” Nessa was broken out of her drowsy spell, “We had no intention of leaving without our farewells. We also didn’t want to wake you so early in the dawn.” She explained herself with a nervous smile on her face.    


Fausm laughed heartily in response, “Think nothing of it. In truth, I sought the two of you out not for goodbyes, but for some interesting news and a proposition.”   


“News?” Mair questioned curiously, “Did something else happen in the town?”    


“Not exactly, as it turns out the thief you two caught doesn’t have any matching records with what the town has on hand,” Fausm explained the situation with a relaxed and calm tone, 

“It seems he was sent to the guild until they can identify him. No worries though, you both should be able to fulfill the mission with your superiors without issue.”   


“That’s strange, hopefully the guild has something on him,” Nessa inquired. She had found the actions of the thief mysterious before, but the situation he was in now perplexed her even more now than it had before, “Well besides that, what was the proposition you mentioned?”   


Fausm straightened his posture and stood face to face with Nessa, despite his towering height, “Well, after all the trouble you both went through these past few days, I thought maybe you could use a helping hand in your future endeavors. I’d like to offer my assistance in joining your team.”  
Nessa’s heart skipped a beat causing her to nearly fall over in shock, “W-Wha? You realize we’re just apprentices right? We’re not a fully made up team yet and you’re far more-”  


“Apprentices or not, you’re still guild adventurers who are able to accept outsiders within your ranks through recruitment. I might be old for a lizard, but I still have plenty of fight left in me, and I’d like to spend it in the right place. So what do you say? Shall we fight together?” Fausm offered his hand forward.   


Nessa was still left in shock at the sudden proposal. She looked to her brother who was also in shock but was more so starstruck than anything else. Nessa smiled to herself, she never expected to have a true team before. Yet now the opportunity was before her.   


She shook Fausm’s hand and sealed the offer, taking him in as a member of Ral’Kacet, “We’d be happy to have you join us, Fausm. Accepting you to join us is the least we can do as thanks for saving and helping us.”   


“Think nothing of it, from now on we’re equals. Now then, I believe we have a lot of catching up to do over a long carriage ride it seems.” Fausm laughed to himself.   
  


Hours upon hours passed quickly for the trio as Fausm spoke of his mercenary tales while they made their way back to the underground city of Eil’Drawwt. The anticipation of returning to the great spectacle that housed the Hidden Star guild was present within all of them. Eventually, their patience greeted them with the shining false sun hanging at the ceiling of the large cavern.    


As the light poured through the windows of the carriage, Fausm was interrupted and shielded his eyes momentarily.   


“You alright, Fausm?” Mair noticed his pause and questioned his reaction.   


“I’m fine. Just haven’t seen how bright the city was in quite some time,” Fausm recovered as his eyes blinked rapidly, “Things seem relatively the same after, what was it? 7 years? Guess I shouldn’t expect a stone city to change that much.” Fausm laughed to himself.   


“It’s the small details that change really,” Nessa added in as she looked out the window at a lower section of the city, “It’s a slow process but things are changing for the better thanks to the guild. Even the little things they do seem to keep this city safe.”   


“I suppose you’re right on that. Off that, I assume the both of you were born here weren’t ya?” Fausm asked while taking a closer look at the passing city.   


“I was!” Mair excitedly answered Fausm, “But my sister was actually born on the surface, lucky her.” He teased at Nessa.   


“The surface, huh?” Fausm grinned, “I’m surprised you haven’t talked up a storm about that, most folks love to talk and talk about it.”   


Nessa blushed and shook her head embarrassed, “Oh I barely spent any time up there to even remember anything. Our father took me to live here when I was real young, I can hardly remember the color of the sky even.”   


Mair simply laughed off her response but Fausm remained relatively quiet in contrast. In the middle of his silence, the carriage drew to a stop at one of the entrance gates to the guild. 

The commotion inside and outside of the adventurer’s guild was as bustling as it always was, a warm welcome to those returning from an exhausting mission.   


The three exited the carriage and offered their thanks to the driver for his services, leaving them in the crowd of adventurers and apprentices, blending in with their surroundings of uniforms and armor.   


“Hey Nessa,” Mair interjected before the group entered the guild, “Fausm and I can go report to the director about the mission and all that. Don’t you think you should get those wounds checked out?” A hint of concern was clear in his voice as he offered the option.   


Nessa looked down to her bandaged arms, a quick run through of her hands over the gauze let her feel that the cuts were not yet closed up despite the healing magic she received, “That sounds fine,” She looked to Fausm and then back to Mair, “Make sure you talk to Director Veridan about allowing Fausm to join our team. Do whatever you can to convince him alright? I’ll meet the both of you soon.” With a smile on her face, Nessa shifted into the crowd and hurried through in the direction of the guild’s medical services.   


“Director Veridan is still kicking these days huh?” Fausm laughed to himself as he and Mair moved through the crowd into the guild, “Could’ve sworn he’d be retired or something by now.”   


“Wait, did you know the director? I thought you were a mercenary?” Mair turned around with a perplexed expression on his face.   


“I guess the cat’s out of the bag, I used to be an adventurer affiliated with the guild when I was in my prime. Nothing too big or crazy of course, just scraping by.” Fausm responded with a sly grin on his scaled face.   


“You were an adventurer here too!?” Mair was taken aback by Fausm’s reveal, “That’s crazy! You must have plenty of awesome adventuring stories too don’t you?” He beamed with admiration.   


“I would hope he does,” their conversation was interrupted as the crowd seemingly parted for Director Veridan who stepped forward to address the two with a rare half smile on his usually blank face, “Fausm served us well during his time. I trust your long awaited return here doesn’t mean these apprentices misstepped in anyway, have they?”   


Mair felt offended that the director immediately assumed the worst, but Fausm responded before he could interrupt, “The two did just fine on their quest. In fact, I see a lot of potential in them, so I’d like to be joining them from now on.”   


Veridan’s mask of stoicism broke briefly as he tried to process what he had heard, “Pardon? Sir Fausm, I know it’s been quite some time since you’ve officially affiliated with the guild, but you need not start at square one back to apprenticeship, it shall ill fit one such of your calibre.”   


“I’m fully aware of my decision Director. These young’uns have potential. I’d like to make sure they stay on the right track.” Fausm defended himself without an ounce of doubt in his striking voice.   


Veridan nodded in acceptance of Fausm’s decision, “Very well, I’ll make sure the arrangements are in order for you to fall in rank with Ral’Kacet. We’ll have a room provided within the hour I’m certain,” The Director turned to Mair and flipped through a series of documents contained in a folder on hand, “In the meantime, I believe a detailed report of this peculiar mission is in order.”   
  


Nessa stood across the hall from the guild’s infirmary, playing through ideas in her head as she decided whether to approach or not. Looking down at her arms once more, she feared what it meant that her arms failed to heal. Everything else from her encounter with Rex was all fixed up. Yet the wounds from her arms, caused by her own magic backfiring on her were as prevalent as they were when they were first inflicted.   


A shudder ran through her spine as she recalled her conversation with Wright.   


Blood magic.   


She knew nothing but the name and the stigma that surrounded it. Was it possible that she had actually gone too far and taken the first step into using blood magic like Wright had warned? Nessa’s thoughts raced as she began to panic quietly to herself. She couldn’t go to the infirmary yet, Nessa decided it was best she went to someone who would understand the situation better.    


Rushing out of the hall, she began to ask around for what to many seemed like the impossible. Where to find Wright. Most of those she asked either had nothing to say or outright deterred her from pursuing further.  
As she suspected, Nessa gathered that Wright was not just respected by those of the guild, but feared more than anything. Despite the warnings, Nessa continued on her search for him.  


In the halls containing personal living quarters for affiliated adventurers, Nessa encountered a small team discussing something amongst themselves. Carefully and politely, she approached and tried to get their attention.   


“Excuse me,” As Nessa spoke, the three adventurers turned their attention to her. There were two night elf girls that appeared a bit younger than her wearing plate and chain armor and a demiriie at half their height with their translucent fairy like wings taking up most of their size, “I’m sorry to interrupt but do any of you know where Wright from Crimson Shield would be?”   


Nessa was initially met with silence when one of the night elves finally spoke up, “You really shouldn’t concern yourself with him. Whatever time he isn’t spending on the job, he’s spending it alone. Best to leave him that way.” She answered condescendingly. With a subtle motion, they decided to leave, abandoning Nessa alone in the halls.   


A wave of discouragement cascaded over Nessa as she leaned against the walls and stared up at the ceiling. Though only a few moments later, she heard a faint patter of footsteps coming back into the hall. She looked and saw the demiriie had returned and looked up at Nessa with interest and curiosity in their cloudy shadowed eyes.   


“Are you really interested in looking for Wright?” The half Aeriie asked with their soft voice, their lavender wings fluttering in a display of excitement, “I’ve heard plenty of rumors and hearsay about him.”   


Nessa bowed politely to the demiriie, “Yes, I have something extremely important to ask of him. If you know anything, please, I beg of you.”   


The demiriie smiled, “Are you certain? I have no intention of scaring you away, but be warned, he’s a frightening individual. I hear he specializes in assassination, and that the guild has much work on their hands to cover up the massacres he could leave in his wake. Some even swear that his magic can rip people apart with ease,” The demiriie spouted off the disturbing imagery with theatrical shock and appall, “Are you prepared to confront a soul as fearsome as he?”  
Nessa cringed at the thought of some of the demiriie’s details, but she called whatever bravery she could muster and refused to back down from her intentions, “I am prepared, do you know where I can find him?”  


The demiriie giggled to themself in delight, “I’m not completely certain, but I’ve heard plenty of rumors that Wright has a private study in the abandoned halls of the lowest floors of the guild. I recommend searching there and listening carefully.” With a delicate curtsy, the demiriie bid farewell and hurried off as quickly as they arrived.   


Shaking off the strange encounter, Nessa went with what she had and hurried off to the abandoned halls that the demiriie had described. After several minutes, Nessa made it to the supposed abandoned halls and found silence where she walked. The lights were dim and ill kept and many of the doors led into empty and dreary rooms that not a soul has touched in what might’ve been decades upon decades.    


The atmosphere felt nauseating to Nessa, but she continued forward, listening intently for any sort of sign of life, but was only accompanied by the sound of her own footsteps and her own breathing. Minutes passed and just when Nessa felt like she might just give up, the faintest of sounds graced her ears. What sounded like a violin gracefully playing a soothing yet haunting melody muffled by the gripping constriction of stone walls barely reached Nessa’s hearing.    


She approached the source of the music slowly, letting the eerie tune announce her arrival as she stepped closer to a velvet door. The door stood as the only source of color amidst the dreadful shades of gray that painted the halls. Nessa was held by an unnatural hesitation as she tried to reach for the door, the music almost seemed to accompany her actions at this point. Drawing her in to act, yet the back of her mind warned her that this was no place to be. Despite the tearing thoughts in her head, Nessa balled her fist and knocked on the door.   


Silence befell the hall following her knock, the music was cut short as if it never existed to begin with, not even an echo was left as a trace. Nessa felt compelled to run, but her legs were frozen in place. She felt like her entire body was split in half on what decision to make, ultimately rendering her motionless to whatever may become of her. As she tried to decide what to do, the door slowly swung open with none behind it.   


Nessa could hear the creak of the door pass to the tune of her own beating heart as she took the steps necessary to enter the room before her without even thinking. As she made the final step inside, a fluttering sound shocked her as a small dark creature flew from the door frame up to an elevated section in the pitch black room. Her half elven eyes could only carry her sight so far as she saw only a glimpse of a dreary study room with no one in it.   


“Hello?” Nessa called out, fear wracked her voice which surprised even her how little she was able to control it, “Mr. Wright? Are you in here?” Silence followed her inquiries as she felt tempted to turn tail and run out of the room before some grand mistake was made. Suddenly, a series of green flames danced throughout the room, lighting a series of lanterns strewn about the study in an instant.   


Finally, Nessa was revealed to the full expanse of Wright’s personal study. With Wright himself seated on an upper balcony with the strange feathered creature perched upon a book he had in hand. With a swift motion, Wright closed the book and the black feathered thing flew down to Nessa and soared past the door, closing it in the process. It sat perched on a lantern, its crimson eyes staring out at Nessa unblinking.   


“Worry not, it’s just a familiar.” Wright called down in an exhausted sounding voice, Nessa was keen on familiars but she had no idea what creature it was intended to appear as to begin with. She decided it must have been some surface animal and just decided to ignore it, “What brings you here, I thought I said before I had no intentions of teaching you.”   


Nessa shuddered and forced herself to speak with the shadowed man a story above her, “I came with questions. Questions about blood magic, and about what’s happening to me.” Nessa raised her arms to the ceiling, revealing her blood stained bandages to Wright as evidence.   


As she raised her arms, she noticed that Wright was no longer on the upper balcony, and instead she saw his hand reach from out of her vision and towards her bandaged arm. Nessa flinched back from his grasp in shock before recovering from the sudden scare.   


“I see,” Wright closed the distance between himself and Nessa, his remaining eye glaring ice cold at Nessa’s arms, “Didn’t I warn you not to be so foolish about your casting. Now look what you’ve done.”   


“I didn’t have a choice,” Nessa panicked and retorted quickly, “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong, I just- What have I done exactly? Can you tell me?”  
Wright turned and began to walk over to his own bookshelves, tracing his fingers over the leather covers delicately, “Too much of your lifeforce was converted into mana. Though it might not have been fatal in short bursts, that excess and unused mana was trapped in your veins for quite some time. One thing leads to another, and now your body is forcing those wounds open to make sure all of that mana leaves safely.”  


Nessa listened intently, careful not to interrupt as Wright approached her. A finger from each of his hands swiped over her arms as her bandages were sliced, revealing the cuts along her forearms. Wright’s fragile hands hovered over Nessa’s arms and shook briefly. As he drew them away, a magical aura surrounded Nessa’s arms as what seemed to be drops of blood flowed out of her wounds into the air above her. The blood slowly faded into a glittery crimson light that eventually disappeared into nothing.   


Nessa waved her arms lightly about, but the effect still continued. The mana trapped within her veins flowed out of her as she felt more and more relaxed. Despite the calming feeling, Nessa still felt anxious over her situation, “Is this?-”   


“Blood magic? Yeah,” Wright answered nonchalantly, “The affinity of life transmutation, unholy retribution, and who could forget necromancy. A good choice really.” He added on in a sarcastic tone.   


“I don’t want to be a necromancer,” Nessa froze up and felt overwhelming fear take over her.   


“You don’t have to be,” Wright took a seat and relaxed, “Blood magic has all sorts of uses, you don’t have to do any of the morally questionable stuff.”   


“I don’t want to be a blood mage at all!” Nessa lashed out and felt her blood rise which unsettled her even more.   


“You don’t have to be,” Wright waved his hand and the door behind Nessa opened ever so slightly, “Blood is an affinity like any other. Lightning, Fire, Life, any within The Affinity Cycle. Some mages fall into affinities easier than others, but it’s always possible to deny that and choose your own fate. Your situation albeit is a bit different,” Wright leaned forward and glared at Nessa, “You have no inclination towards the blood affinity. Rather it’s your body that slowly pushes you towards it out of necessity. Your internal mana pool is weak, you’re not fit to be a mage. Your body overcompensates and as a result draws you closer into blood magic.”   


Wright’s words hit Nessa like a speeding carriage as she felt herself wanting to deny what he said, but failing to come up with anything substantial to say.   


“I know you don’t want to hear that, you didn’t want to hear any of this,” Wright snapped his fingers and the rising effect on Nessa’s blood ceased, “That should’ve gotten out whatever was left in there for now. I leave this choice up to you now. Make a choice, return here before dawn if you have the bravery to embrace the blood affinity. If you do not, I will assume you chose to walk another path,” Wright turned away and the door opened fully, awaiting Nessa, “I have nothing more to say to you today, Nessa.”   


Silence befell the study as Nessa knew not to speak in words, but through her actions to come. With an important branch in her future, Nessa left and prepared for her decision.


	12. Forward

In the hours before dawn would rise on the surface, Nessa stood in her room and turned over cabinets and storage as she searched through her belongings. The ruckus she caused stirred her sleeping brother. Mair squirmed out from beneath sheets and looked out the window at the still dimmed lights of the cavern ceiling outside.   


“Sis? Why are you up so early?” Mair grumbled in a drowsy induced annoyance.   


Nessa jumped in surprise from Mair’s comment, she looked to him while she was still sifting through their belongings, “Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you, I have somewhere to be soon. Have you seen any of my spare wands? I could’ve swore I packed some from the manor.”   


Mair sat up and rubbed his eyes, “Uhhh, I don’t remember where you put them,” He paused with a yawn and a smile, “But where are you going? Didn’t the guild put us on a pause while they figure out our last mission or something?”   


“We still are, I’m meeting with someone. They’re offering to help me teach magic, but I don’t want to show up without a wand. I can’t believe I’m being this disorganized.” Nessa spouted off in a nervous panic. Her glancing gaze stopped at her tome, left on a nightstand. She flipped through it, stopping at the torn pages before finally putting it away into her satchel.   


“Someone’s going to be teaching you magic?” Mair asked in a surprised but quiet tone, “When did this happen?”   


“It was...spontaneous, don’t worry about it Mair. I’ll be back later.” Nessa slung her satchel over her shoulder and gave her brother a quick hug before leaving, much to Mair’s annoyance at being babied. She quickly left out the door to their room and went on her way, leaving Mair alone.   


The young night elf crawled out of bed and lazily kicked the mess Nessa left behind out of his path to the dresser against the wall. Mair’s focus and attention wandered as he noticed his pike left in the corner where he left it. He stepped over to it and saw the clouded reflection of himself in the silver. His groggy thoughts wrapped around his mind as he considered what he should do. While his sister was out improving, he was remaining stagnant.   


Mair reached over to the drawer for his armored uniform and decided that he had to improve as well. He changed quickly out of his sleeping wear and into his uniform. Mair stood at the door, took his pike in hand and left into the rest of the guild hall.

  
  
In the deserted halls of the lower levels of the guild, Nessa found herself hurrying towards Wright’s study. Anxiety constricted her as she worried about not having her wand. Nessa hoped and prayed that it would all still end up alright, though she expected to be scolded by Wright regardless.  


Nessa reached the door leading to Wright’s study and paused in anticipation, bracing herself in preparation to knock on the door. Before she could even act though, the door swung open on its own, presenting her with the same scene she encountered the night before. Wright, insteading of staying seated at the upper balcony, was now waiting near the door with a hint of impatience in his tired eyes.   


“I suppose it was unreasonable to ask you to arrive at dawn without the sun to accurately guide you. Oh well, you arrived at least.” Wright groaned. Nessa could hear in his voice that he wasn’t all that happy to be awake, yet it didn’t seem like he regretted the arrangement just yet.   


“Sorry I didn’t mean to be late, I had some trouble looking for a wand after my last one broke, I hope it won’t be an issue.” Nessa slunk into the room, holding her tome close to her chest as she feared his following response.   


Surprisingly, Wright didn’t look annoyed, rather he looked confused for a brief moment, “You carry that tome on you, do you not? You’ll use that to cast your magic, it’s far more efficient.” He concluded.   


“Casting magic through a tome?” Nessa flipped through the pages with a bewildered look on her face, “I haven’t ever done that before, is that, you know, safe?”   


“As safe as any casting apparatus, as long as it’s enscripted,” Wright held his hand out forward to Nessa, expecting her to hand over the tome, “I’ll assume you don’t have a script on your tome, I’ll put it on for you.”   


“You’re able to write scripts? I guess I should’ve expected that from you, but still.” Nessa handed over her tome to Wright cautiously as he walked away, dropping it on a desk for the ritual to begin.   


“I don’t do anything too fancy, no weapons or crazy wards,” Wright kept his main hand straight and steady over the tome. With a slight motion of his fingers, a red light crackled at where his fingers connected as he lowered the magical light to the tome, “Just picked up the craft in case I ever needed to create a mana focus. This might take a while, so you might as well take a seat somewhere.”  
  


As Nessa’s training went on, in another section of Hidden Star, the sounds of weaponry carving through the air came from one of the many smaller training stations within the guild. Mair stood alone in the room connected to the larger training ground, purposely keeping himself away from the distractions of other adventurers as he practiced his own abilities by shadow fencing with his pike. He felt driven to improve more than anything, and yet without a clear indication of his progress, feelings of inadequacy crept up on his mind. Despite his own thoughts holding him back, Mair tried to keep pushing forward. He worked on his balance, the force behind his strikes, and the fluidity of his motions.   


In the middle of Mair’s training, he heard the footsteps of someone approaching him. Mair snapped out from his focused trance and looked to see Fausm at the small gateway. The gargantuan reptir crouched down slightly to fit through into the room and gave Mair a nod as a greeting.   


“Hey Fausm,” Mair squatted down and dropped his pike to catch his breath, “You training too? I didn’t think you’d need to honestly.”    


“I do still need to, even if it’s nothing extreme,” Fausm groggily answered as he slowly made his way to the other side of the room, “Gotta get these old scales moving somehow. I heard you were out training so I thought I’d join you.” As he finished speaking, he drew his greatsword off his back, and to Mair’s surprise, a symbol flashed upon Fausm’s blade briefly before fading out of sight. Though to Mair it didn’t seem like anything changed, Fausm’s grip wavered slightly as he briefly struggled to carry the gargantuan blade before properly adjusting to it.   


Though speechless and confused for a few moments, Mair eventually spoke up, “Wait, what was that on your sword? Do you know magic too or something?” Mair looked all around the sword and yet couldn’t find a trace of the symbol.   


“Hm? Oh by the hells no. I couldn’t cast magic for the life of me. I have scripts on my weapon, that’s all.” Fausm answered nonchalantly, leaving Mair with more questions than answers.   


“Scripts?” Mair appeared bewildered but also curious, his starry eyes appearing even more vibrant than usual.   


“I guess you are still new aren’t you,” Fausm heaved his sword up to point it towards the ceiling. As it fell back into his grip, a faint aura surrounded his greatsword as a series of symbols appeared down the metal blade, “Scripts are mana based enhancements made to weaponry, armor, or whatever can be enscripted. They can get a little wild, but I just carry the basics. Some wards to defend against magic, and of course I have a script that helps with the sheer weight of this damned weapon.” Fausm laughed off the end of his explanation, as he put his sword back down. The scripts faded out from vision just as before.   


“That’s so cool!” Mair continued to get distracted as he got a closer look at Fausm’s sword, “Can I try it out?”  
Fausm smiled briefly before cleaving his greatsword into the stone floor below him. With little movement from his hands, the scripts appeared and slowly faded into a gray color before fading entirely.  


“I can safely say that without the scripts, you wouldn’t be able to lift this thing,” Fausm stood to the side with his arms crossed and a smug grin across his scaled face, “So go ahead and try and activate the scripts, I’ll walk you through the whole process.”    


As Fausm instructed, Mair excitedly got to work attempting to work around the weapon and heave it out of the ground.   
  


Nessa sat at an unused workspace within Wright’s study and patiently waited for the inscription to finish. Her attention drifted to an old worn down book at the far end of the desk she sat at. Recognizing the elvish writing as something saying blood and magic, she decided to flip through the pages briefly. Her grasp over the elvish language wasn’t nearly as good as Nessa would’ve preferred it to be, preventing her from gathering anything of substance from the book. 

Though the language barrier may have stopped her, it was the diagrams of the many blood magic spells that caught her eye and uneased her. She saw blades of mana positioned from the wounds of the casters and detailed notes on what veins and arteries to draw from. Unnerved by the gravity of the book’s contents, Nessa closed it and put it aside just in time for Wright to approach with the finished inscription.

“Here, practice shifting between your spells and meet me in the backroom when you’re ready.” Wright tossed Nessa’s tome onto the desk and walked past her to leave her alone in the study.  
Nessa felt confused at what exactly he meant, but decided to investigate anyway. She carefully let her hands draw closer to the tome when a symbol suddenly appeared on the front cover glowing in a crimson light. Nessa’s hands instinctively drew closer, causing the crimson light and symbol to shift into the familiar violet that her magic appeared as. 

With the light now unwavering in its color, Nessa’s focus was drawn to the symbol of the script itself. An upside down heart with a minimalistic weapon clawed through it down the middle. Nessa brought the book she closed earlier and flipped through the pages until she found the exact symbol among many of the diagrams.    


A shiver threatened to crawl down Nessa’s spine as she felt the primal need to run away. A deep part of her knew the road she was about to walk was dangerous, and yet she was already halfway down the hill. Without letting the hesitation stop her, Nessa opened her tome and began to flip through the pages aimlessly. Her mind was set adrift as she desperately tried to ignore the feelings to turn around and find another way out, this uncertainty in her physically manifested as the pages of her tome flipped and turned on their own. Nessa watched in confusion, her hands backed off the tome and yet the strange occurrence continued. The pages continued to turn without direction or purpose until Nessa slowly clasped her hands together, closing the tome in the process without any contact.   


A brief smile appeared over Nessa’s face as she felt accomplished at the quick attunement to her new casting apparatus. Nessa opened her hands once more and searched in her mind for what to do next. The tome opened and flipped to a spell she was very familiar with. A violet fog wrapped the tome as Nessa flicked her wrist up, bringing the tome up to her grasp with ease. 

Still giddy from her efforts being rewarded, Nessa happily followed Wright into the backroom of his study. She entered the room and noticed it was clearly set up as some sort of meditation chamber, but the space clearly had not been used judging by the fresh candles lining the walls.   


“Sit across from me,” Wright ordered in his monotone voice from his kneeling position in the middle of the room, “Before we even go into the basics, you need to prepare your mana and the mana around you for the affinity you wish to cast with.”   


Nessa didn’t answer, instead deciding just to sit down and listen across from her teacher. She kneeled down and rested her tome on her lap waiting for further instruction.  
Wright reached next to him for a torn page of paper he left on the floor. Wright’s mahogany mana fluttered about the page like a rapid flame consuming it. He flicked his hand and let the page leave his fingers towards Nessa’s tome. The tome opened, allowing the page to seal itself in as if it were there to begin with.  


“That spell, it’s hardly a spell, rather it’s a preparative ritual. It’ll consume no mana nor even your life to cast. It’s meant to prepare yourself and keep yourself relatively safe when casting blood magic,” Wright droned on, bored by his own explanations. Had his one eye not already been closed, it would’ve been easy to tell he was drifting to sleep, “Go ahead and practice casting and dismissing that ritual until you have it in control.”   


“Alright, here it goes,” Nessa replied in a low whisper as she flipped to the page and looked over its details. As the spell was written, she placed her hand over her heart and performed a harsh wrist motion before trying to pull it away to complete the spell. Crimson sparks flew from her hands as she felt a strain at her chest, but nothing remained afterwards “Ow...Is it supposed to feel like that?”   


“It’ll take a few tries to call it out,” Wright explained, “That pain will pass as long as you can maintain the ritual. Once it’s started, you have to envision a support that keeps you grounded to living. Blood magic is an art that allows you to dance between the door of death as much as you please, but stray too far and you may find yourself with no life to return to.”   


“W-What!?” Nessa exclaimed in shock which caused Wright to snap out of the trance to put himself in.   


“Huh? Oh, guess I was drifting off. Just keep something in your mind that you can not live without. It helps ease the body in and out of the blood affinity state, and don’t choose something stupid like your crush or boyfriend or whatever.” Wright groaned as he returned to his grogginess.   


Nessa closed her eyes and made another attempt at the ritual, reaching towards her chest and then calling out. She kept it in her mind what kept her going most, and in that instant she was able to keep the ritual going. The pain in her chest struck at her, but Nessa was able to ignore and push forward. Her eyes slowly opened to see Wright staring at her and a scarlet aura surrounding her body like a faint glow.   


“Good,” Wright closed his eye again, “Now dismiss it and do it again.”   


“Oh I see, it’s so I get more used to that chest pain right?” Nessa answered with a smile on her face.   


Wright grimaced for a moment, “Yeah, let’s call it that.”   
  


“Still struggling with that script are you?” Fausm turned his attention to Mair. The young adventurer kept his grip on the hilt of the massive sword tight in both hands as he struggled to lift it up, “Remember, scripts are a product of mana, and your body is composed of mana all around it, just not the casting magic kind. Focus on the script as an extension of your own body, and you’ll connect with it.”   


Mair nodded in response as he took Fausm’s advice to heart. He loosened his grip and tried to envision the weapon as an extension of himself. Mair breathed in and out in silence, hesitant to try again, fearing he would fail. He eventually made the decision to make one more attempt. With the final attempt, the sky blue symbol on Fausm’s blade shone once more as Mair lifted the blade out of the ground and held it at waist height.   


“H-Hey! I did it!” Mair exclaimed, even though the sword was significantly lighter than before with the script, he still had a hard time lifting it in any actual stance. Satisfied with having activated the script at all, Mair lowered the weapon to the ground and eased himself from the whole experience, “Jeez, that things still heavy regardless, huh?”   


Fausm walked over to Mair’s side and gave him a congratulatory pat on the back before lifting his sword up with one hand, “It’s something you gotta get used to, weapons like these aren’t for everyone. Now then, I assume you’re going to return to your actual training?” He concluded as he leaned his sword against the wall.   


The realization that Mair ended up distracting himself struck fast and hard, “Agh! That’s the third time I got distracted just today,” Mair buried his face in his hands briefly in frustration, “I’m never gonna catch up with Nessa at this rate.”   


“She’s your older sister, right? It’s only natural she’s going to have an edge up on you,” Fausm sorted through the training weapons lining the walls as he spoke before pausing and turning to face Mair, “Wait, she is the older one right? I never caught onto telling the ages of elves.”   


“Yeah, she’s older than me of course, I get that. But the way things are now, I can barely pull my own weight. When I was growing up, I told myself I’d be there to protect my sister from harm no matter what,” Mair crouched down to where he dropped his pike, looking into his reflection in the metal blade, “Now that I’m here, I’m helpless. I can’t even protect myself, let alone protect Nessa.”   


Fausm pondered his response as he watched Mair sulk, uncharacteristic of him from what he understood.   


“You seem to have quite the strange perception of yourself, Mair,” Fausm finally spoke up, which prompted Mair to look up at him, “I’m not going to pretend like I’ve known your whole life, but when I encountered you and your sister out in that sellsword den, I didn’t see a helpless boy who couldn’t pull his weight. No, I saw a warrior standing the line between his foe and who he sought to protect. That man didn’t care if he was to fall as long as he made an attempt and died with blade in hand.”   


Fausm tossed a sparring staff from the wall over at Mair’s feet and took one for himself as well.  
“It’s not about all the times you failed, but about all the times you tried. Because if you keep trying, you’ll eventually succeed, but if you stop, you sure as hell won’t ever fail,” Fausm held the staff and readied himself into a fighting stance, “So keep trying.”  


Mair smiled and picked up the staff that Fausm threw to him. Without hesitation he broke into a sparring match with Fausm. Though outclassed in every way, constantly outmatched and knocked down by his opponent, Mair kept getting up for another shot. Every hit and every bruise, they only served a reminder for an eventual victory Mair could see on his path.

“That’s all I have for you today,” Wright explained to Nessa as he opened the door to lead her out of his study, “In the meantime, practice that spell, and try casting while it’s active. I expect you tomorrow as well then?”   


“Of course, sir.” Nessa entered the hallway and bowed politely to Wright before preparing to leave.   


“One more thing,” Wright stopped her just in time, “You caught on pretty easily, mind me asking what you’ve been keeping as your support for that ritual?”   


“Oh, you mean the thing that keeps me tied here or something? Well I just thought of my brother,” Nessa smiled brighter than she ever had, “I love Mair more than anything. I can’t ever imagine leaving him alone, so I suppose that’s what helped me push through the fear and pain.”   


Wright couldn’t help but smile back but still spoke in his monotonous tone, “How cute. Well, I had no intention of prying. Now then, off with you.” Wright shooed his student away.   


Nessa shook her head and laughed off Wright’s peculiar attitude before finally leaving for the main sectors of the guild.   


Wright stood in the hall even after Nessa had left, deep in thought over something on his mind. As he stared off to the hall towards nothing in particular, he heard a creaking sound break the silence of the deserted hallway behind him. Instinctively, his gaze snapped behind him to find that the hall was still empty, unchanged despite the sound he heard. Wright kept his gaze fixed for only a few moments before chalking it up to some troublemaker and reentering his study.   


As Wright left the hall alone, minutes of silence passed before someone stepped out from the source of the sound at the far end of the hallway. What stood was a tall tan skinned man with cloudy dark eyes, he was dressed in an elegant dress suit and upon his cheeks and neck he wore beautiful tattoos that seemed to flow like a breeze passing through him.   


“Nessa…” The man spoke as a pair of ashen fairy wings fluttered upon his back, “Such drive and determination. Will it be enough?” The mysterious man spoke in a sing-songy tone before disappearing down the hall he appeared from.


End file.
